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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28127415">Love Stories From The Beanery</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zynnie/pseuds/Zynnie'>Zynnie</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Love Stories From the Beanery [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>ASTRO (Band), Rainz (Korea Band), UP10TION, 방탄소년단 | Bangtan Boys | BTS</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>(not the fun type), Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops &amp; Cafés, Alternate Universe - College/University, Fluff, M/M, Meet-Cute, Pining, Side Character Injury, Slow Burn, Stalking, and then has to go back and edit them all, author sometimes forgets and uses stage names instead of real names, hmmm 15000 words and only a little flirting probably qualifies this as a, not my intention but that's just how it is with these two</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-05-09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 12:20:47</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>26,795</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28127415</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zynnie/pseuds/Zynnie</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Sunyoul is a poor college student with a fantastic voice... majoring in accounting. Gyujin is also a college student... who falls head-over-heels in love on their first meeting. The other coffee shop employees find this development hilarious. Also featuring: barista college student Jungkook, also barista MJ (but he's managed to finish college), coffee shop owner Jin, music major roommate Bit-to, recently heart-broken Kogyeol.</p><p>First time posting to AO3 so the tags are a bit... lacking? I tried only to put the tags that are immediately applicable. I take helpful advice in the comments!</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Go Minsoo | Kogyeol/No Sooil | Kuhn, Han Gyujin/Seon Yein | Sunyoul, Jeon Jungkook/Kim Taehyung | V, Kim Myungjun | MJ/Moon Bin, Minor or Background Relationship(s)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Love Stories From the Beanery [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2313197</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. The Meet-Cute</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Disclaimer: This is not meant to imply any actual real life relationships.</p>
    </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Ok. I have no idea how far I'll make it writing this story. But!!! This is my subtle plea to other better writers for more Up10tion fics, because I am thirsty and that fandom is very barren right now. Also, this fic is ENTIRELY the fault of this VLive: https://www.vlive.tv/post/1-18248407. Don't worry, it has English subtitles. It's... inspirational.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It was only noon and Gyujin was exhausted. His best friend (and roommate) Minsoo had gotten dumped unceremoniously by his latest girlfriend the night before ("I just don't like you as much as you like me... and also I've been going out with another guy I like more sorry ;&gt;.&lt;" ) and so like any good friend he'd stayed up to keep their dorm from getting too trashed while trying to keep Minsoo from drinking too much to function today. It was exhausting and he was exhausted, mentally and emotionally. He didn't even have anyone else to complain about the whole fiasco to either, since the only other friends he'd made besides Minsoo were... Minsoo's friends and it felt weird whining about Minsoo to people that probably liked Minsoo more than him anyway.</p><p>Gyujin shook his head, deciding the best way to get away from these thoughts was to take a walk away from the campus itself. He had a whole afternoon to himself after his math professor had to cancel due to a bad case of appendicitis. His thoughts wandering, he found himself further away from campus than normal. He was about to turn back when he noticed a brightly colored bird painted on the front window of what looked to be a coffee shop. </p><p>"The Beanery" was tucked into a narrow-looking space between a noraebang and an accupuncture shop. Really not the best location, but once he noticed the tantalizing smell of coffee in the air Gyujin couldn't help but follow his nose in the door.<br/>
Once inside, he saw the shop was narrow but much longer than he'd expected. Metal cafe chairs and colorful plush arm chairs of various shapes and sizes were scattered randomly around similarly mis-matched but colorful tables. The dark wood floor looked severely weather-beaten but clean, offset by brightly colored murals overlaid with various paintings and photographs hanging all over the walls. The lighting wasn't very bright, so it took Gyujin a few seconds of blinking as his eyes adjusted to notice the counter tucked into the back of the room behind a conspicuously open and roped off section of the floor where he supposed they had live music occasionally. </p><p>There was no one behind the counter and only a few college students scattered here and there, studying to the calming background music piped into the shop or to the beat of their own headphones. As Gyujin got closer to the back he could hear voices from the kitchen area... A guy and a girl perhaps? He quietly observed the menu, checking out the delicious looking quiches in the display case and trying to decide if they looked good enough to spend a little more than he'd planned to for a late lunch. </p><p>"Hello! What can I get for you?" the light, cheerful voice broke through his thoughts. Gyujin straightened up to respond to the employee with a smile and froze when he realized the speaker wasn't a girl. Maybe... No, that was definitely a male name on the nametag? He cleared his throat trying to will away the blush creeping up the back of his neck and on to his cheeks as he met the eyes of the most gorgeous guy(?) he had ever seen. Huge eyes, straight bleached hair cut so long in front it brushed his eyelashes, a small smile that turned stiffer the longer Gyujin stared as he tried to get his thoughts back in order...</p><p>A laugh to the side of him broke into his stupor, and he shifted his eyes to see another stunning man, similar enough that he wondered if they were cousins, though their build was completely different. (And the hair. The other man's was black, fluffy at the sides, and was parted down the middle to show his forehead.) </p><p>"Hey! Stop laughing!" The tall but delicate-looking person in front of him raised his voice (it just got higher pitched), turning to the other man and whacking him on the arm in annoyance before nervously smoothing down his hair. Gyujin nearly choked on his own breath at the sound. He was pretty sure that he was creepy staring in a bad way by this point, but he was also pretty sure his brain had just completely short-circuited. Maybe caught on fire with how hot his ears felt.</p><p>"Sorry, sorry!" The other man wheezed, his arm flexing as he held himself up off the counter in between peals of laughter, "it's just so funny every time!" </p><p>"Jungkook-shi, are you harassing the new help again?" A new voice, amused and long-suffering, entered the scene, and Gyujin managed to refocus as ANOTHER good-looking guy stepped out from the kitchen area. He was lankier than... Jungkook, but definitely not as delicate-looking as the first one, who was currently pouting. Adorably.</p><p>"I'm sorry Yein-sshi," Jungkook said with a dazzling smile attached that didn't seem to mollify the slightly smaller man who huffed adorably. Gyujin thought he was ok dying of a heart attack this way. It seemed to be a good way to go. "Yein caused another casualty Seokjin-hyung," Jungkook said turning to the new man with a twinkle in his eyes. "I don't know how we're going to get customers like this if Yein-sshi keeps killing them with his cuteness."</p><p>"Hey!" Yein (the cute one, who looked like a bunny wrapped up in a ball of sunshine and sounded just exactly like that too) wacked Jungkook on the arm again while Jin chuckled good-naturedly. </p><p>"Yein be nice to Jungkook, we need him to move the heavy stuff and he can't do that if you keep beating up his arms. Jungkook, are you just standing there to be in the way or are you here to help fill this poor customer's order... Because we really won't have many customers if you two spend all your time fighting instead of doing your jobs." The words were spoken as if in humor, but there was a look of admonition in Seokjin's face that caused even Gyujin to straighten up a little and desperately try to remember what he'd wanted to get in the first place.</p><p>Of course any attempt at straightening out his thoughts went completely out the window when Yein harumphed at Jungkook one final time and then turned his attention back to Gyujin, locking him into the full force of his doe eyes. Gyujin cleared his throat and tried to order his coffee and slice of quiche like a normal human being while also trying to vanish the blush from off his face by force of will power alone. From the snicker he heard off to his right he was definitely not successful. He let out a small sigh of relief when Jin grabbed the snickering Jungkook by the ear and dragged him into the back, whining all the way. He caught Yein sighing in relief as well, and they exchanged a rueful glance. Gyujin cleared his throat again. "Um. Sorry about that. Um. Yeah. Just... Yeah. Sorry." </p><p>He felt his face burn again as Yein let out a quiet breath of a laugh and shook his head. "No, it's fine, I'm sorry you had to witness such unprofessionalism." Yein smiled again and Gyujin admired the small wrinkles that formed at the edges of his eyes. Yein opened his mouth as if to say more, and then shook his head again. "Feel free to be seated, I'll bring your order right out to you."</p><p>Gyujin nodded with as much of his remaining dignity as he could muster, and then all but collapsed into his chair, pulling out his phone to mask his existential crisis. He had thought he completely straight. In the past he'd dated a few girls, although those relationships had never been very serious, and he could admire a good-looking person, but he'd never, ever felt tempted ever to ask out another guy. And now? Now he had just met the most attractive person he'd ever seen in his life (who happened to also be a guy) and he... Had strong desires that involved spending MUCH more time together than was probably appropriate for a stranger he'd only just met. The wiplash (or was that the attraction) was so severe it made his head spin. Maybe it was just because he'd been single since the beginning of the semester, but his thoughts were quickly veering into dangerous territory completely inappropriate for a coffee shop.</p><p>He quietly thanked Yein when his order was delivered with a small polite smile, ate quickly, left, and made it back to his dorm room without remembering any details for how any of that happened. When Minsoo came back that evening, it was to find a still-dazed Gyujin collapsed onto his bed still staring off into space as his brain whirled frantically trying to figure out how to deal with life.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Preview for Chapter 2: The Fall-Out: Yein</p><p>The rest of the day passed slowly. Yein got off work at 3:00pm, just as his replacement Myungjun came running in the back door gasping out apologies and rambling about long-winded professors. He said a cheery goodbye to everyone, took a steadying breath, and then broke into a jog. This was his least favorite part about the coffee shop- how far it was from campus. If his best friend Sooil was slightly more on time he could probably have hitched a ride back like Jungkook got from his boyfriend Taehyung, but Sooil was never on time and Yein could not handle the thought of being late to class. Ever.</p><p>    ...</p><p>"Yein," Yein flinched away from where Changhyun was standing near the cupboard, running his hands on the sides of his jeans and swallowing hard, curling in to himself slightly against the butterflies breaking out all over his body. "Please!" Yein glanced up at Changhyun's face, meeting his desperate eyes just briefly before looking away again to focus on the bowl of ramen. "I'll do anything. Whatever you want. I'll get it for you. I'll do it for you."</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. The After-Math: Yein</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>This chapter brought to you by Sunyoul's hour and a half marathon VLive karaoke session: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mG_ZcZGqb_s</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Yein scowled at Jungkook when he got back to the kitchen after giving the guy his food, and Jungkook just laughed. "I think that's the most starstruck admirer I've ever seen!" Yein sighed and flopped down in the corner, dropping his head into his folded arms and moaning softly. That was SO EMBARASSING. Now that he wasn't existing in the heat of the moment, he wished the ground would just open and swallow him up.</p><p>A smack and a yelp lightened his mood a bit when he peeked out over his arms and saw Jin holding a towel. Jin's mouth opened into a pleased grin when he caught Yein's quiet huff of a laugh. Then Seokjin turned on Jungkook again; "Jungkook-a, it's so hard to find good, honest, reliable employees! If you scare this one off I'll cut off your free coffee supply for a year, see if I don't!"</p><p>"Seokjin-hyung, you'll leave a mark!" Jungkook whined in reply, pouting as he rubbed at the spot on his leg where Seokjin had obviously gotten him with the towel."Besides, you didn't see his face! The poor guy looked like he was having an out-of-body experience! ...But I'm sorry for laughing Yein-hyung," Jungkook quickly amended catching Seokjin's glare.</p><p>"It's fine," Yein replied, uncurling with a sigh, "you're right, it was kind of funny..." but even as he smiled a very small wry smile, he couldn't help sigh again a little mournfully. It wasn't that he was uncomfortable with his high voice and his soft features... mostly. It was just so annoying dealing with the weirdos he always seemed to attract. He wasn't even interested in any of that anyway. He had a classes to attend, exams to pass, and (most importantly) money to make in order to pay for it all.</p><p>And speaking of money... Yein pushed himself up with a sigh in order to get back to the counter, hoping the guy from earlier wouldn't be too obviously stalking him. As he passed, Seokjin paused Yein with a hand on his shoulder. Yein firmly surpressed his urge to flinch away as Seokjin smiled kindly at him and said, "if the kid gives you any trouble, just call for Jungkook. He may be a pest, but he makes a great bouncer."</p><p>Yein smiled in return and ducked his head with a quiet, "yes Seokjin-hyung," and moved on as soon as Seokjin lifted his hand back up, ignoring Jungkook whining at Seokjin in the background.</p><p>When he got back to the counter he was pleasantly surprised to find the guy before not paying him any more attention. He squinted slightly to make sure, but the guy just seemed to be focused on his phone. Relieved, Yein got back to cleaning the counter and coffee equipment, and waiting for the next customer. The coffee shop was only year old and fairly out of the way so it wasn't very busy in the middle of a weekday. Yein got so distracted checking his school emails he didn't even notice when his admirer left. He only noticing the dishes had been already placed in the dish bin and the table empty once again a good twenty minutes later when he made the rounds wiping down used tables.</p><p>The rest of the day passed slowly. Yein got off work at 3:00, just as his replacement Myungjun came running in the back door gasping out apologies and rambling about never-ending classes. He said a cheery goodbye to everyone, took a steadying breath, and then broke into a jog. This was his least favorite part about the coffee shop- how far it was from campus. If his best friend Sooil was slightly more on time he could probably have hitched a ride back like Jungkook got from his boyfriend Taehyung, but Sooil was never on time and Yein could not handle the thought of being late to class. Ever.</p><p>Luckily, he made it to his math class with fifteen minutes to spare and had time to lean panting against the side of the building smoothing down his windswept hair, trying to get his breath back and his bangs perfectly organized before he walked into class. His study partner Seongri tugged at Yein's hair as he walked by, laughing when Yein whacked him on the arm in retaliation.<br/>
By the end of class Yein's head was spinning and he pinched his lips together to hold back the whine that wanted to escape as he gently banged his head against the desk. All he wanted to do was get a degree... why did general eds have to be so hard? He could tell Seongri was snickering at him again, and he rolled his head to the side to glare at him. "Aw poor Yeinn-ie," Seongri chuckled patting his head, "wanna come sing with my band? Let off some stress?" </p><p>Yein grimaced at the nickname, swatting his friend on the shoulder in retaliation as shook his head, trying not to look too obviously uncomfortable at the suggeston. Since he'd let slip that he'd started posting song covers to the internet, Seongri had semi-constantly been on his back about two things: hearing Yein sing in real life (not just the occasional snippets he got when Yein forgot he was studying in public and would start humming or singing softly to himself) and finding out what his YouTube channel was called. </p><p>For obvious reasons, Yein was totally uninterested in doing either. Though he occasionally daydreamed about being a famous singer, it just wasn't possible to make money singing if you didn't start with money or have incredible luck. He definitely didn't have the first and it wasn't worth living on the street to find out if he had the second. He'd only just gotten the courage up this year to start posting some of his noraebang sessions to YouTube.</p><p>He'd started posting videos of him singing wearing a mask and an extra-large hoodie on a whim last year. It had become one of his favorite parts of the week, performing for an invisible audience. Honestly he was shocked he had any audience, but somehow word of the mysterious "Sunyoul" had gotten to a few minor YouTubers and his fame had modestly snowballed from there. He didn't pull in enough views to make a living off of it, but the people in his comments sections were so encouraging that it gave him the little boost he needed to continue uploading. </p><p>Considering which, he already had a date with the noraebang that evening, so he said goodbye to Seongri and headed out to drown his sorrows in pop songs for a few hours. He only made it an hour and a half that evening before the homework hanging over his head forced him back to the quiet of the university library, where he worked until his growling stomach finally forced him out of hiding in his favorite corner at 10:00 that evening. </p><p>- - - -</p><p>"Where've you been?" Yein smiled tiredly at his roommate Changhyun as he toed off his shoes at the door. Changhyun looked like he was already ready for bed, sitting with his legs tucked under the covers and (like usual) a book in his lap.</p><p>"Ah, just working on homework and studying for my economics test tomorrow. What have you been up to?" Yein dropped his backpack on the end of his bed before wandering over to the mini fridge to check if there was anything edible stashed away.</p><p>"Just homework, music, reading, composition. The endless cycle of a college music major. There's still some instant rice bowls in the cupboard I think." Yein happily abandoned his futile search of the nearly-empty mini fridge in order to investigate the cupboards next to the sink that had just enough room for both his various skin care products  and the instant food they squirreled away in their room for just this purpose.</p><p>He hesitated over the rice bowls before deciding to just go with the last packet of instant ramen instead. As Yein tore open the ramen packets he asked, "did you finish your latest song yet?" The question was met with a heavy sigh, and Yein turned to look at his roommate in surprise. "What's wrong Changhyun?"</p><p>"If it were just finishing the bridge part it'd be fine," Changhyun began, pulling off his glasses and rubbing at his eyes, "I'm completely done otherwise."</p><p>"But..?" Yein turned back to finish preparing his ramen as he prompted Changhyun to continue.</p><p>"But," Changhyun's frustration began to leak into his voice, "My final grade depends on finding someone who ISN'T a music major to sing it! I don't KNOW anyone who isn't a music major who isn't already taken or busy!"</p><p>"I have a friend in my math class who sings with his band," Yein suggested, leaned back against the counter while he waited for his soup to finish cooking in the microwave.</p><p>"Hm. I guess that would work... but I don't know the guy. Does he have a good voice?"</p><p>"Oh yeah! Seongri has an amazing voice!" Yein grinned, eager to promote his friend. </p><p>"Wait... Kim Seongri?" When Yein nodded, Changhyun signed. Already taken. One of the guys in my class knows the guitarist in his band." Changhyun sighed again, scratching his head in frustration. And then, "wait!" Yein flinched when Changhyun suddenly pinned him with his eyes, smoothing down his hair nervously. "You sing, and you sing really well from what I've heard."</p><p>Yein hummed non-committally, thankful the microwave chose that moment to ding so he could turn around and focus on his ramen instead. He heard rustling behind him, and closed his eyes, hoping Changhyun was NOT actually getting out of bed, that those were NOT Changhyun's footsteps that were approaching as he carefully put his bowl of ramen safely on the counter, that...<br/>
"Yein," Yein flinched away from where Changhyun was standing near the cupboard, running his hands on the sides of his jeans and swallowing hard and curling in to himself slightly against the butterflies breaking out all over his body. "Please!" Yein glanced up at Changhyun's face, meeting his desperate eyes just briefly before looking away again to focus on the bowl of ramen. "I'll do anything. Whatever you want. I'll get it for you. I'll do it for you."</p><p>Yein scowled at Changhyun. "I don't want to tank your grade either! And I'm not some well-trained music student! I'll mess up!"</p><p>"I'll talk to my professor. I think she'd let us prerecord it as long as we have at least one witness to verify that we sang it live. You've heard most of it, right? You could sing that? It's not too difficult right?"</p><p>"Well... No..." Yein smoothed his bangs down again as he tried to remember what the song sounded like. It really was a great song. Catchy, uptempo, breezy; it was a good summer song. It was kind of high, but he was pretty sure he could hit all of those notes if he didn't freeze up. He looked at Changhyun suspiciously. "But surely there's someone better than ME to do it! I don't have any training! All I do is sing in the noraebang!"</p><p>"Yein, what's your average score?" </p><p>Yein looked at Changhyun, and then looked away. "I mean... I don't just sing things I don't know so..."</p><p>"It's pretty high, right? Like somewhere in the high 80s?"</p><p>"Well..." Yein had a sneaking suspicion that this was a pretty major life decision that he was approaching. He could just walk away, deny it flat, go on and leave singing as an unimportant side note in a boring life all about making money. Or. Or he could give it a little tiny chance. Just one. See where it got him.</p><p>Yein fiddled with the sleeves of the oversized hoodie he was still wearing, looking up through his bangs again at Changhyun. "You said I can request anything if I do this?"</p><p>"Anything." Changhyun was still looking very serious, but Yein could tell from the way he was starting to fidget that he knew Yein was caving.</p><p>Yein gazed at Changhyun a few seconds more before sighing. "Fine. Let's TRY IT..." he had to raise his voice to be heard over Changhyun's whoop of excitement. "Shut up! Do you want to get us in trouble?" Yein hissed at Changhyun, whacking him on the head with the half-empty plastic water bottle that had been sitting next to the sink. "I SAID," he repeated to a much more smiley Changhyun, "that we can try it. If it works, great. If not... I hope you have someone else picked out for a backup. Also... I don't really want my face on camera. I don't want to be personally blamed for your bad grade."</p><p>"No! You won't be. This is going to be amazing. Seriously. Thank you so much!" Changhyun moved forward as if to hug him, and Yein quickly held out the waterbottle like a sword in warning. They had a strict no hugging rule after the first time Changhyun had tried to glomp on to Yein and nearly given him a heart attack. Unlike Changhyun, Yein had grown up as a mostly only child (one sister ten years younger hardly counted) so he was NOT used to that sort of physical affection. "Oh, sorry." Changhyun beamed at Yein before striding back to his bed to grab his phone. "So, what time will work for you?"</p><p>"Time?" Yein put the waterbottle back down so he could grab his still-hot ramen and chopsticks, carefully carrying the bowl to the foot of his bed so he could settle down on the floor and finally have dinner.</p><p>"You know, to practice. Do you have time tomorrow?"</p><p>Yein grabbed his own phone and checked his schedule. "Well... I do have an hour between my morning and afternoon class from 11:30 to 12:30."</p><p>"Good enough!" Changhyun beamed at him and Yein scoffed back, busying himself with slurping down his noodles and trying not to panic at the thought of not having extra time during his lunch break to re-read the assignment before his afternoon class. "Do you know where the music building is?"</p><p>"Mh," was Yein's elegant reply, accompanied by a nod of his head.</p><p>"Ok. Then let's meet in the lobby. I think I'll be able to snag a practice room if I leave early tomorrow morning to sign up. Really," Changhyun looked up from his phone again with his serious face on. "Seriously. Thank you so much. Just tell me when you figure out how I can repay you."</p><p>"Mh," Yein replied, continuing to scarf his instant noodles.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Chapter 3 Preview: The Second Meet-Cute</p><p>"So you came back! You must have really enjoyed our... quiche." Gyujin debated whether it would be better to smack himself in the face or Jungkook, and settled for a withering look instead. He'd just opened his mouth to hopefully redirect the conversation when his traitor of a roommate beat him to the punch.</p><p>"Oh absolutely!" Gyujin looked at the ceiling in despair and wondered if he could commit spontaneous combustion if he just focused on it hard enough. "He couldn't stop raving about it, so the rest of us had to check it out!"</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. The Second Meet-Cute: Gyujin</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I have made a change to chapter 2 as to why Sunyoul gets dragged into singing with Bitto!<br/>...<br/>"But..?" Yein turned back to finish preparing his ramen as he prompted Changhyun to continue.</p><p>"But," Changhyun's frustration began to leak into his voice, "My final grade depends on finding someone who ISN'T a music major to sing it! I don't KNOW anyone who isn't a music major who isn't already taken or busy!"</p><p>"I have a friend in my math class who sings with his band," Yein suggested, leaned back against the counter while he waited for his soup to finish cooking in the microwave.</p><p>"Hm. I guess that would work... but I don't know the guy. Does he have a good voice?"</p><p>"Yeah, Seongri has an amazing voice!" Yein grinned, eager to promote his friend.</p><p>"Wait... Kim Seongri?" When Yein nodded, Changhyun signed. Already taken. One of the guys in my class knows the guitarist in his band." Changhyun sighed again, scratching his head in frustration. And then, "wait!" Yein flinched when Changhyun suddenly pinned him with his eyes, smoothing down his hair nervously. "You sing, and you sing really well from what I've heard."</p><p>Also! Today's inspiration is from YouTube: ... watch?v=nguY81D2NEY (Particularly starting at 1:45)</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It took Gyujin a total of four days before Minsoo could convince him to go back to the coffee shop... with Minsoo in tow this time. Gyujin hadn't really thought about it at the time, but he was REALLY regretting letting slip about his crush to Minsoo now. On the bright side, Minsoo was a lot less heartbroken now that he was living vicariously through Gyujin's non-existent love life. On the down side, Minsoo was now living vicariously through Gyujin's non-existent love life and WOULD NOT STOP PESTERING Gyujin about it, to the point that now the two freshmen pests who were part of their group had also picked up on it and had somehow also gotten way too invested in what was really a very small... debilitating... crush.</p><p>Unfortunately, all four of them were free at the same time on Saturday, so Gyujin found himself being herded back to The Beanery for a late lunch by Minsoo, with Hwanhee and Dongyeol snickering together at the rear. The Beanery was significantly busier than the first time, though there was still a free table that the four of them claimed before heading to the counter to check out the "menu." Gyujin was ready to drop kick them all off a cliff.</p><p>It was with a certain mix of relief and disappointment that Gyujin saw that the man behind the counter was not Yein. Unfortunately, it was Jungkook, who definitely recognized Gyujin as well by the smirk that started spreading across his face. Gyujin pretended to be very interested in checking out the available quiches in the display case and hoped against hope that Jungkook was too busy to cause trouble.</p><p>"So you came back! You must have really enjoyed our... quiche!" Gyujin debated whether it would be better to smack himself in the face or Jungkook, and settled for a withering look instead. He'd just opened his mouth to hopefully redirect the conversation when his traitor of a roommate beat him to the punch.</p><p>"Oh absolutely!" Gyujin looked at the ceiling in despair and wondered if he could commit spontaneous combustion if he just focused on it hard enough. "He couldn't stop raving about it, so the rest of us had to come check it out!"</p><p>"I wasn't..." Gyujin's outburst of momentary desperation quickly faded in front of the creepily similar smiles from Minsoo and Jungkook, and the rising snickers from Hwanhee and Dongyeol. "I hate you all," he continued with as much dignity as possible, "and I want one slice of cheddar and broccoli quiche, a chocolate scone, and an extra-large Americano. He's paying." Gyujin pointed at Minsoo and stalked off to the side to lean against the wall and pretend to be offended. He wasn't really, but when Dongyeol came over to tease him more it did lighten his mood considerably to put Dongyeol in a headlock and mess up his hair as Donyeol tried to quietly shout at him to stop.</p><p>Once everyone had placed their orders, things quieted down a bit and they went back to their table so they wouldn't distract Jungkook from the other incoming customers. Gyujin was just beginning to relax when he heard Yein's distinct voice say, "I'm so sorry I'm late!" Gyujin tried to surreptitiously sneak a glance at the back but when he saw Yein, pink-cheeked and panting, his hair blown to the sides as he leaned against the doorjam trying to catch his breath, the was nothing at all surreptitious about the way Gyujin swallowed dryly. He could feel the heat rising up the back of his neck as he forced himself to look back at the table.</p><p>"Whoa." Gyujin glanced to the left and saw Minsoo nodding at him. "I totally get it now."</p><p>Gyujin responded with a pained look, which only got more pained when he distinctly heard Jungkook say, "well now that you're here, can you take the orders to the star table? That tray of quiches there."</p><p>Hwanhee and Dongyeol started jabbing each other and snickering, and Gyujin checked the ceiling for an escape hatch. No such luck. He glanced back at the counter again and saw Yein carefully twitching his bangs into place using the mirror on the back wall. He just... Gyujin groaned very quietly and his "friends" cracked up around him as he put his head in his hands. </p><p>He was tempted to just not look up again, but when he heard Yein's cheerful "Hello, did someone order a couple of slices of quiche here?" He just couldn't resist. Unfortunately it was right as Yein looked at him and it took approximately one nano-second of eye contact for his his entire face to flush red even as he did his best friendly nod-and-smile combination to the background of Hwanhee and Dongyeol's increasingly loud howls of laughter.</p><p>"I'm so sorry," he said to Yein's hand as he tried to reach over Minsoo and whack them into quietness. He couldn't quite reach Hwanhee, but Dongyeol caught his meaningful glance/nod at the formerly peaceful coffee shop and slapped a hand over Hwanhee's mouth to quiet him down.</p><p>"Hi there, I'm Go Minsoo! What's your name?" Gyujin didn't even have to glance at his long-time friend to know that he'd pasted on his biggest, smarmiest friend-catching smile in order to chat up Yein. </p><p>Instead he shot his best quelling look at Hwanhee when Dongyeol yelped and wiped his wet hand on a smug Hwanhee with a disgusted, "ew, gross! Why would you do that?"</p><p>"Did you have the broccoli and cheddar quiche or the ham quiche?" Yein asked politely in reply, mostly ignoring both the barely restrained chaos to his left and Minoo's smile from the front. Gyujin added another bullet-point to his mental "why Yein is the best" checklist.</p><p>"He and I had the broccoli and cheese quiche slices," he replied to Yein, trying to distract him from his friends who were quickly becoming more embarrassing than his crush on Yein. "Those clowns had the ham. I'm so sorry for disrupting your cafe," He tacked on earnestly, looking worriedly at Yein who was really beginning to look annoyed.</p><p>"Thank you, please keep the noise down in here for our patrons who are trying to study," Yein returned with a polite smile as he set the quiche down and whisked away back to the counter.</p><p>Gyujin allowed himself one long glance of admiration at Yein's slim frame from the back (filing that image away for... later) before glaring at Hwanhee and Dongyeol. Dongyeol at least was trying to look repentant as he quietly wrestled with Hwanhee. "Seriously you two, knock it off! You'll get us kicked out!" Gyujin... well he more whisper-begged than whisper-yelled, but it seemed to work anyway as Hwanhee subsided with only a little more whispering back and forth with Dongyeol and just sat there looking smug instead. "Honestly, we can't take you two anywhere nice," he grumbled half-heartedly as he took a bite of quiche. It was a good quiche. He wondered if it was the same kind as the one he'd had the week before.</p><p>"Sorry Mom," Hwanhee sing-songed before he and Dongyeol also started into their quiche slices. Gyujin glanced over to the counter and saw Yein scowl at a smirking Jungkook. He hoped that this terrible visit hadn't completely cost him his ability to come back. ...Because the quiche was good. </p><p>When he heard Minsoo snort, Gyujin suddenly realized he'd been staring absently at Yein's face as he quietly argued with Jungkook, and reluctantly turned away to look at his friend. "What," he asked flatly.</p><p>"You shouldn't just stare at people dude! That's what makes you look like a creepy stalker," Minsoo said with an amused smile (the one that made his eyes crinkle up and all the girls swoon). Gyujin automatically relaxed into a pout at the accuracy of the statement.</p><p>"I can't help it!" Gyujin tried to be very quiet with his whining. "It feels like an addiction! It's..." Gyujin paused briefly as he returned to seriousness. "It's kind of overwhelming honestly."</p><p>"Dude." Hwanhee leaned forward suddenly with a serious look on his face. "You don't even know anything about him! And he doesn't know anything about you either. You should calm down."</p><p>"Yeah Hwanhee," Dongyeol broke the tension with a poke to Hwanhee's arm and a mocking smile. "Just like you were soooo subtle about your crush on... what's her name from your bio class? I mean you don't even really know her either except..."</p><p>"Shut up!" Hwanhee hissed frantically, covering Dongyeol's mouth with both hands, practically pushing Dongyeol off of his chair with the force of his actions. "You said you wouldn't say anything about that!"</p><p>Dongyeol pried Hwanhee's hands off of his face and pushed them away in annoyance. "I wasn't going to say anything! I'm just saying, you aren't really one to talk."</p><p>"Well neither are you!" Hwanhee's volume started increasing quickly as he got more annoyed.</p><p>Gyujin wondered if he should intervene, but for once Dongyeol seemed to remember their surroundings because his response was a hissed, "I didn't say I was! I'm just saying that you aren't either!"</p><p>...And then Dongyeol aimed a smug smile at Hwanhee that made Hwanhee puff up in annoyance again. In order to divert the incoming storm, Gyujin decided to distract them by asking, "aren't you going to eat your quiche?"</p><p>When Hwanhee and Dongyeol both looked from him to his barely-touched quiche incredulously, Gyujin made a big show of cutting off and eating a large bite, smiling and closing his eyes in appreciation as he chewed. "See?" Gyujin opened his eyes and mock-glared at them. "I am at least ATTEMPTING to enjoy my food while it's still warm, and you two arguing is ruining the taste!"</p><p>Dongyeol gifted him with a very unamused look, but did take a bite of his own quiche, and even Hwanhee settled down again after some dramatic sighing and grumbling. Gyujin sighed and looked over at Minsoo, who twinkled back at him in amusement. Kids. Honestly.</p><p>The rest of the meal passed more or less normally. Gyujn managed to mostly ignore the siren call of Yein tending to the less and less frequently lunch customers by engaging his friends in a spirited discussion about the worst professors ever, and by the end of the meal he felt almost back to his normal self. Except for that one point when he glanced up and caught Yein looking at him with what his feeble mind imagined to be a very small smile. Gyujin summoned up all of his bravery to smile back before trying to refocus on Hwanhee's extremely dramatic retelling of the Worst Group Project Ever. Luckily, Dongyeol was wrapped up in bantering with Hwanhee, so only Minsoo noticed his flustered swallow and red ears, giving him a knowing smirk as Gyujin attempted respond appropriately to whatever drama Hwanhee was somewhat loudly proclaiming.</p><p>They could only hang out at The Beanery for an hour before they had to head back, and by that point the place had mostly emptied out. Luckily Yein was still manning the counter, so as they got up to leave Gyujin mustered up his remaining courage and offered an apologetic smile/bow/mouthed thank you combination to Yein before he turned to head towards the door with his friends. Yein's kind smile in return was enough to keep him on cloud nine all the way back to the campus. Even Dongyeol and Hwanhee's embarassingly dramatic reinterpretations of his encounters with Yein were not enough to dampen his mood. ...He wasn't really paying attention anyway, too busy trying to hold on to every detail of that parting smile.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Preview for Chapter 4, The Aftermath: Yein</p><p>Besides those practice sessions and talking to his friends at class and work, the rest of his days were SiGNIFICANTLY less fun. His accounting classes were just so boring and the math made his head hurt. He'd also acquired another fan at The Beanery, but this guy was older and kind of creepy, which made him start to dread coming in. He should probably talk to Jin or Jungkook about it, but he felt so embarrassed about the whole thing that he kept putting it off. Nothing had actually happened yet, and he felt bad kicking a paying customer out over nothing more than a bad feeling.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. The Second Aftermath: Yein</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>This week's video is inspired by this clip from the Up10tion official YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02H_7Yb_zMk</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Yein's week had been very busy BEFORE he'd agreed to help Changhyun out with his final project. Were it not for the anxiety of actually singing in front of someone, he was sure he would be less stressed about the whole thing, because his practice sessions with Changhyun were quickly becoming something he looked forward to almost as much as the karaoke sessions he was having to forgo in order to make everything fit. Changhyun had actually changed the song a bit after they'd started working on it, and even so it was pretty high in Yein's range. Whenever he got nervous, he'd freeze up and have a hard time hitting the notes, but Changhyun was so incredibly patient in coaxing him through the rough spots again and again that he'd started to get the hang of it. And get a little more relaxed around his roommate.</p><p>Besides those practice sessions and talking to his friends at class and work, the rest of his days were SIGNIFICANTLY less fun. His accounting classes were just so boring and the math made his head hurt. He'd recently acquired another fan at The Beanery, but unlike the quiche guy, this guy was older and kind of creepy, which was making him start to dread coming in for his evening shifts. He should probably talk to Seokjin or Myungjun about it, but he felt so embarrassed about the whole thing that he kept putting it off. Nothing had actually happened yet, and he felt bad kicking a paying customer out over nothing more than a bad feeling.</p><p>And it was weird how different he felt about the cute college kid who was so obviously crushing on him. Usually Yein was just uncomfortable or weirded out about other men being obviously attracted to him (in real life, YouTube was a different level of unreality), but the quiche guy had been so very obviously trying NOT to overstep his bounds that Yein didn't feel nearly as weird about it. Also, if the earnest apology at the end of he and his friends' loud visit to The Beanery was anything to go by, he seemed like a genuinely nice guy. And maybe it gave Yein warm fuzzy feelings to have some random actually genuinely nice-seeming dude attracted to him for once. Well, at least he had one more good thing to tide him over until mid-terms were done.</p><p>"So, did you get his number?"</p><p>Yein squeaked and jumped when Myungjun suddenly spoke up right in his ear. "Ah! Hyung, you scared me!" Yein pressed a hand to his rapidly beating heart and pouted in response to Myungjun's wide grin.</p><p>"Well?" Myungjun nodded his head towards the door, settling sideways against the counter and crossing his arms. "Did you? Or maybe did you give him yours?" Myungjun's smile took on a mischevious glint as he wiggled his eyebrows at Yein.</p><p>"Of course not!" Yein smoothed his hair down as he tried to compose himself again. "That would be very unprofessional."</p><p>"Psh. That's how I got Bin's number, and look how good that's turned out for me!" Myunjun's eyes took on that glazed far away look he got whenever he started talking about his boyfriend. "Why just the other day..."</p><p>"That's enough!" Yein covered his ears as he felt himself start to blush. "I really don't want to hear anymore!" Yein had accidentally overheard Myungjun and Seokjin discussing more... intimate details of their relationships one time and Myungjun had never stopped teasing him about how he'd bawled both of them out and then gotten very embarrassed when he'd realized what he'd done.</p><p>"Aw, our sweet angel-bunny Yein," Myungjun crooned, ruffling Yein's hair before he had the chance to move out of the way, "I promise I won't pollute your mind with any more adults-only talk!"</p><p>Yein was really blushing now as he finally ducked out of reach and smoothed his hair back down, scowling at Myungjun in earnest. "Stop it," he whined, and Myungjun just laughed, shooing him off to go clean up the recently vacated tables.</p><p>Yein ducked behind the counter to try and get his face under control, ignoring Myungjun's snickering as he turned to deal with a customer who had just come in. A few deep, calming breaths later and Yein primly snatched the dish bucket to go clean off the tables. He started as far away from Myungjun as possible, and let himself fall back into his normal routine of rehearsed greetings and polite smiles with the various repeat clientele that The Beanery was starting to accumulate.</p><p>So it was a good fifteen minutes after quiche-boy left that he discovered "Gyujin" had left his student ID underneath his chair when he'd left. Unfortunately, there wasn't a cell number or address on the ID, so Yein could only slide it into his pocket, to put it in their lost-and-found drawer later. Luckily, Myungjun was distracted by customers at the time and didn't notice what happened, or the fact that Yein couldn't hold back a smile and breath of a laugh at the painfully awkward smile on Gyujin's face in the picture on his ID. </p><p>Yein wasn't very romantic, nor was he feeling in need of romance (the whole idea seemed excruciatingly embarrassing and unnerving, especially if it was with another guy). But while he was busy washing the dishes he could admit to himself (in the darkest, most secret part of his mind) that if he was going to try to have a relationship with another man, Gyujin seemed like exactly the type he would want. Not that he was immediately interested in such things. Keeping up his GPA was really all he could afford to focus on anyway. Especially with how much he was struggling in math class.</p><p>The rest of the day passed slowly, the afternoon coffee-shop business keeping him and Myungjun pleasantly busy. A little over an hour before closing, Myungjun got an urgent call. Yein was busy cleaning off the counter when he saw Myungjun's face blanch as he grabbed on to the counter in support. "No way..." he whispered, his face twisting in horror. Yein moved closer in case he needed to catch Myungjun, should Myungjun collapse. "Yes... yes... ok... Of course. I'll come immediately. Thank you... Yes... Ok... Please... Thank you... Yes... Yes." As soon as he hung up, Yein moved to his side to help a shaking Myungjun into the back and to one of the free chairs there.</p><p>"Myungjun hyung, what happened?" Yein asked softly as he grabbed the kleenex box from its shelf just in case.</p><p>"Ah. Bin. Hospital called. Bin... No. A friend? One of Bin's friends called. From the... lobby? It wasn't super loud though. Maybe because it's late?"</p><p>"Hyung," Yein broke in quietly, kneeling by Myungjun and putting a hand on his knee. "Why did Bin's friend call?"</p><p>"Bin... He's..." Myungjun opened and closed his mouth a few times as if to keep talking, but the words just weren't coming out as his breathing starting getting more panicked.</p><p>"Hyung." Yein tried to sound strong even though he had no idea what to do. "Um. Do you... do you have someone who can take you to the hospital?"</p><p>Yein was relieved when Myungjun took a deep breath to speak, even though the wild look in his eyes was still pronounced as he fumbled for his phone. "Yeah. I need to call Jinwoo. He can drive." Yein watched anxiously as Myungjun proceeded to nearly drop his phone twice in the process of calling Jinwoo, and was probably more relieved than Myungjun when Jinwoo picked up. "Jinwoo. Um. Car...." Myungjun paused and started looking more panicky again, so Yein gently pulled the phone out of his hand and gave him a kleenex that he promptly started shredding.</p><p>"Hello, Jinwoo-ssi? This is Myungjun hyung's co-worker, Yein."</p><p>"Yein-ssi? What's going on?" Yein heard rustling in the background and hoped it was Jinwoo getting ready to go.</p><p>"I'm not totally sure, but Myungjun needs a ride to the hospital right now. Can you come pick him up?" Yein started to rub Myungjun's knee in what he hoped was a calming matter as Myungjun started softly muttering what sounded like reassurances to himself.</p><p>"I'm on my way. Is he still at The Beanery?" Yein faintly heard a door slam and then the distinct sounds of Jinwoo starting to run down an echoey corridor.</p><p>"Yeah. We're in the back room, so you can park in the back. Just call Myungjun hyung when you get here and I'll send him out."</p><p>"Thank you Yein-ssi. I'll be there in... no more than ten minutes. Can you please keep an eye on him until then?"</p><p>"I'll do my best," Yein promised, throwing a concerned look at Myungjun when he let out a little hiccupping gasp before going back to his steadily murmured mantra of reassurances. "See you soon Jinwoo-ssi, drive careful."</p><p>Jinwoo gave a short dry laugh before saying goodbye in between heavy breaths. Yein slowly stood up and, still holding the phone, checked through the door to see if there was anyone at the counter. To make the evening even worse, there on the other side of the counter stood the creepy stalker dude, eyeing up the menu.</p><p>Yein ducked his head back and took a deep, fortifying breath. Then he looked at Myungjun, who was steadily building a small mountain of shredded kleenex pieces underneath him. "Myungjun hyung," Yein started, kneeling back down beside Myungjun and putting a hand on his knee, "I need to go deal with a customer, but I'll be right back, ok? Will you be alright?"</p><p>Myungjun looked up and a little fire returned to his eyes. "I'll come help," he said, dusting kleenex shreds off his fingers.</p><p>"Are you sure..." Yein's worried question was interrupted by the ding of the bell, so there was nothing for it but to shrug and let Myungjun follow him out of the back room on his way to deal with creepy stalker dude. </p><p>As a side note, creepy stalker dude wasn't even outwardly creepy. An older man, he was tall, of medium stature, and well-groomed. He wore business suits as if coming straight off of work. But there was something about him that made Yein extremely uncomfortable. Maybe it was the way the guy always seemed to smile a little too big, stare a little too long, lean a little too close, ask a little too many questions. </p><p>At any rate, Yein couldn't pawn him off on anyone else this evening, so he put on his most bland customer service smile. "Welcome to The Beanery, what can I get started for you this evening?"</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Preview of Chapter 5: The Third Meet-Cute: Gyujin</p><p>"Ah, Gyujin-ssi. Um." Myungjun suddenly lowered the volume of his voice enough that Gyujin had to strain to hear. "Do you have time to stay until we close?"</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. The Third Meet Cute Part 1: Gyujin</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I'm so sorry this took so long! I got a little depressed there in the middle so I had to wait it out because it was basically impossible for me to write fluff during that time without it getting way too angsty. &gt;.&gt; ANYWAY, this chapter is brought to you by... well. You remember that video clip I credited at the beginning of chapter 3? Yeah  I found the whole video on VLive and it's amazing (also has better English subtitles though they get a bit off as far as timing goes towards the second half): https://www.vlive.tv/post/0-18282167. </p><p>Time stamps of note (to me, mostly featuring Sunyoul): 19:20, 30:00, 46:30 (&lt;&lt;&lt;-THIS ONE IN PARTICULAR), 1:02:08 (palm wrestling game with better subs), 1:19:00 (Gyujin vs Sunyoul aegyo battle), 1:21:40 (skinship relay), 1:28:55 (Sunyoul vs Gyujin staring (at camera) game featuring Hwanhee's pep talk), 1:49:50 is where the karaoke part starts feat Kuhn and Sunyoul duet at 1:55:00, Sunyoul solo at 1:58:30, and Gyujin solo at 2:07:40; also apple hair at 2:19:35 &gt;.&lt;</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It was dinner time before Gyujin noticed his missing student ID. Or rather, it was because Gyujin planned to have dinner at the cafeteria and couldn't find his ID that he realized it was missing. After frantically searching his room and asking around, he decided to call The Beanery to see if it had showed up there. It took four rings before his call was answered with a breathless, suspiciously familiar, "hello, this is The Beanery, how may I help you?"</p><p>Gyujin just about swallowed his tongue when he suddenly realized Yein was speaking directly into his ear. He also almost dropped his phone. After a little bit of fumbling and a brief prayer for strength, Gyujin managed to respond, "um, yes. Hello. Um. Sorry to interrupt! But um. Have you happened to have found a student ID card?"</p><p>"Oh, yes! I have it right here! Were you planning to come pick it up this evening?" </p><p>"If it's alright... How late will you all be open?" Gyujin started calculating how fast he could get there as he pulled his coat off the hanger.</p><p>"We'll be open for another hour, so you have plenty of time!" </p><p>Gyujin let out a little sigh of relief before his stomach decided to remind him that he hadn't eaten dinner yet. "Oh and um. Do you still have quiche left?"</p><p>The short laugh that elicited caused Gyujin to close his eyes and wrinkle his forehead in pain. He wanted so badly to see the face Yein was making in real life. "We actually do have a few pieces of the broccoli and cheddar quiche left, would you like me to save you a piece or two?"</p><p>Gyujin wasn't a huge fan of broccoli quiche, but at the moment he couldn't care less. "Please! Thank you very much. I'm so sorry to inconvenience you like this!"</p><p>"Oh no, no problem at all."</p><p>Gyujin was pretty sure he could hear the smile in Yein's voice, but maybe it was just wishful thinking. Either way, he tried his best to stay focused on the conversation and save the giddy fist pumping for while he was walking to The Beanery. "Well thank you again, very much. I should be there in about fifteen minutes."</p><p>"Alright. Ah! Hey! Myungjun hyung..." Gyujin was enthralled by how Yein's voice reverted back to a higher pitch as whoever "Myungjun hyung" was apparently stole the phone away.</p><p>"Hey, are you the kid that left his student ID here?" Myungjun also had a very high pitched voice, though his was somehow... different than Yein's. Sharper. And faster. And just different and not as attractive to Gyujin, luckily. He wasn't sure how he would cope if he started crushing that hard on absolutely every guy with a high pitched voice he heard.</p><p>Gyujin nodded in response, and then felt really dumb when he realized that Myungjun wouldn't be able to see him. "Yes. I'm Gyujin."</p><p>"Ah, Gyujin-ssi. Um." Myungjun suddenly lowered the volume of his voice enough that Gyujin had to strain to hear. "Do you have time to stay until we close?"</p><p>"In an hour? Umm..." Gyujin hummed as he thought briefly over his schedule for the next day. Sunday, so just homework and playing. "Yeah, sure. I can do that. . . Do you mind if I ask why?"</p><p>"That's great! I have to leave early today due to an emergency, and Seokjin-hyung is busy this evening... and I really don't want Yein-ie to be locking up on his own." Gyujin nodded again as he eyed his pile of homework and books he had to get through, trying to decide what to bring when the meaning of Myungjun's message finally struck.</p><p>"Oh! Um. Yes. No. I mean..." Gyujin blushed when he heard Myungjun laugh loudly at his flustered word salad. He took a deep breath and tried again. "That is to say, I'm happy to help if I can." And then Gyujin paused. "Does... does Yein-ssi know?"</p><p>"Oh of course not!" Myungjun laughed again, softly this time. "I'm not going to tell him until I leave. Preferably from a safe distance away. He bites you know." Gyujin swallowed dryly against the many feelings and thoughts that came bubbling up at THAT statement. "Oop. He's coming back. I'll probably be gone before you get here so take good care of our Yein-ie ok? Thanks bye!" </p><p>Gyujin blinked as Myungjun's increasingly rapid speech suddenly cut off with that hasty goodbye. After blinking at his phone for about five seconds longer than necessary, he gathered his wits again, and then the book he needed to take notes on. He even remembered to check his appearance in the mirror (passable if you squinted, but his hair and clothes were still clean anyway) before heading out the door. </p><p>Only when he was halfway across campus did he remember to text Minsoo and let him know what was going on. At least he wasn't directly in front of Minsoo so he only had to deal with his teasing through text... for now. And luckily he had enough of a head start that he was able to dissuade Minsoo from coming along, but he was pretty sure Minsoo was going to hold that over his head for the forseeable future as well.</p><p>When Gyujin arrived at The Beanery, there were only a few people left. There were two female students studying together at the table by the door, a pair of male students all spread out working on a project at the table next to them, and then no one else until he passed an older businessman-type sitting at the table closest to the counter reading a book. There was no one behind the counter, so Gyujin rang the little bell and waited, reciting in his head how he would greet Yein. Casually but friendly. NOT stalkery. Minimal staring and not below the chin. </p><p>And then Yein peeked his head out and Gyujin could practically feel all of his thoughts leak out his ears. And then Yein smiled at him (a REAL smile with crinkly eyes and everything) and Gyujin thanked every lucky star that his reflex was to smile back, because he was pretty sure all of his thought processes got clogged up trying to draw an imaginary halo and wings on the poor (beautiful) guy. "Ah, Gyujin-ssi! Just a minute, let me start warming up your slices of quiche! Did you want anything to drink with it?"</p><p>Gyujin blinked slowly as his brain recluctantly forced itself to process something other than Yein's beautiful face. And voice. And... "Ah, no." Gyujin cleared his throat, glancing down at the counter as he ran his free hand through his hair and attempted to regain his composure. "Or rather, I'll just have water." Gyujin chanced a look back at Yein and had to swallow hard against the urge to coo at Yein's slightly tilted head and wide-eyed expression. "I don't usually drink coffee this late," he finished with a slight smile, the type that mostly happened in the eyes, and felt extremely pleased when Yein responded with a similar smile.</p><p>"Ahh of course. The water cups are over there to the left, and then go ahead and take a seat and I'll bring your quiche to you when it's ready."</p><p>Gyujin thanked Yein and paid, and then busied himself getting comfortable on the overstuffed couch by the coffee table across from the business man. Just as he was settling in, he noticed the man across from him staring at him, so he gave a friendly nod before heaving a sigh and opening the book he had to read. </p><p>Gyujin had only taken notes on half a page, when he heard a tentative, "um, excuse me," to his left. He looked up and found himself less than a foot from Yein's face. As he was tamping down on his own urge to rear back, he had the pleasure of watching Yein's eyes get big and his cheeks get slightly pink as he straightened up hurriedly and cleared his throat awkwardly. </p><p>Gyujin had a fleeting desire to get that reaction again... immediately. Instead he stuffed the thought back down and gave his own best inquisitive smile/head-tilt combo. He decided to be embarassed by his lame flirting skills at a later date. And at least Yein was now smiling back at him (the non-customer service smile) so obviously SOMETHING was working. Hopefully.</p><p>"Sorry to interrupt you, I just came to bring you your quiche... and your student ID. I'll just put them here on the coffee table." Gyujin resisted the suddenly very strong urge to stroke Yein's smooth blond hair as he set the slice of quiche down on the coffee table. Luckily, that inner desire was only betrayed by the slightest twitch of his hand. "Do you need anything else?" Yein straightened up again, and Gyujin frantically tried to come up with a reasonable excuse to keep Yein there... and came up empty.</p><p>So Gyujin surpressed his very unreasonable urge to pout and instead smiled widely as he grabbed his ID to tuck it safely away and said, "I'm all set for now, thank you very much."</p><p>After Yein gave him a slight smile back and left, Gyujin sighed and slumped back on the firm but velvety couch. Ugh, why was life so difficult? Not that he was any better at flirting with girls than guys. The last time he'd dated, it was because she had asked him out. Incidentally, she was also the one that broke it off a few months later. "Passive" was the word Minsoo had used... and he was right, Gyujin thought mournfully as he tipped his head back down to study the cover of his book; even the very idea of actually asking Yein out made him so embarrassed that he wanted to crawl out of his own skin. </p><p>Instead he shook his head at... life in general, and set about eating the (and maybe this was just wishful thinking?) significantly larger slices of quiche than he'd expected. Instead of grabbing something else to eat on the way home, he was pretty sure this would be enough... maybe. Until one o'clock when he'd eat some more food to make up for the calories he was going to be consuming studying for his statistics class.</p><p>Just as he was finishing his last bite, Gyujin noticed movement out of the corner of his eye. Gyujin looked up and blinked in astonishment to see Yein approaching with a textbook and tablet in hand and (more interestingly) a tentative look on his face. The way he paused when he noticed Gyujin looking and then squared his shoulders and puffed out his cheeks when he pursed his lips briefly in determination before continuing on made Gyujin feel... things. Lots of things. All of them good. Like butterflies and fireworks and like his insides had melted into a warm, tingly goo. He took a deep breath himself in an attempt to prevent himself from doing anything too dumb, and tried to keep his smile more pleasant and less creepily beaming when he greeted Yein. </p><p>"Um, hello. I hope I'm not interrupting you?" Gyujin really wanted to smooth Yein's hair down for him. And then ruffle it up to annoy him. And then smooth it down again. And then... Gyujin pulled his mind to an abrupt halt as soon as he realized his gaze was starting to drift downward past the smooth blonde bangs brushing up against Yein's beautiful eyes... past his perfectly formed nose... Coughing slightly to clear his thoughts, Gyujin felt his ears start to burn as he met Yein's eyes again.</p><p>"Oh. Um. No, not at all. I'm planning on working on some homework while I'm here, but it isn't urgent," Gyujin lied with a smile. Technically it had to be done by Monday, but there were plenty of hours between now and then that wouldn't have Yein in them, which made them automatically better suited for homework.</p><p>"Oh, it's not like that," Yein hurriedly reassured him, his voice higher as he tried to speak quietly and his eyes widening to convey his earnestness. Gyujin felt a little faint. "I just... since it's not usually very busy right now and the backroom doesn't have any place to comfortably study, I decided to study out here. Do you mind if I borrow this chair?" Gyujin was nodding before Sunyoul even completely finished speaking, let alone gestured to the chair diagonally across the coffee table from him. After a brief pause where Gyujin belatedly realized he should maybe have used his words instead of just smiling and nodding at Yein like a love-struck idiot (which he was), Yein hesitantly laughed, and then settled into the chair.</p><p>After getting thoroughly distracted by watching Yein wiggle around slightly trying to find a comfortable way to settle himself and his homework into the rose colored chair, Gyujin surprised himself by coming up with a good question to prolong the conversation. "Yein-ssi, what is your major?"</p><p>Yein paused and looked at him, and then smiled wryly as he reached up and twitched his bangs into place. "I'm an accounting major." He sighed and settled back in his chair, pouting slightly at Gyujin's raised eyebrows. "Why is everyone so surprised to hear that?"</p><p>"Maybe because I don't actually know any accounting majors?" Gyujin asked back, wondering if he could somehow work in the honest truth that Yein looked way too cute to be an accounting major... or even a college student for that matter. Instead he said, "There's not a lot of overlap between the business and engineering departments."</p><p>"You're an engineering student?" Yein leaned forward slightly, "what sort of engineering?"</p><p>"Oh, just civil engineering. Nothing too exciting." Gyujin paused and then remembered... "that reminds me, what year are you in?"</p><p>"I'm a junior," Yein said, and then when Gyujin stared at him in shock as he tried to process this huge new piece of information and all of its implications, Yein narrowed his eyes and crossed his arms with a huff. "Yeah yeah, I know. I have a..."</p><p>"Hyung?" Gyujin wasn't really paying attention and only realized what he'd said a second after Yein had gone completely still, staring at him incredulously.</p><p>"What?"</p><p>"Ah! I mean," Gyujin felt himself flush as he looked away and rubbed his neck awkwardly."That would make you my hyung right? Oh but I don't mean to call you so familiarly since I guess we don't really know each other all that well yet..." He trailed off and glanced at Yein and found Yein looking at him with just the softest look. Gyujin looked down again as his ears got warmer and the tingly feeling in his stomach grew.</p><p>"No no, feel free to call me hyung." Gyujin checked again, and Yein was full on beaming at him, so he smiled back hesitantly. "It's not every day I get to adopt a cute dongsaeng."</p><p>Gyujin spluttered, suddenly feeling a bit annoyed as Yein's eyes laughed at him, and then he shifted forward, opening his eyes as wide as he could. In his best aegyo he asked, "do you think I'm cute?" And then he sat back again and laughed as he watched Yein's face morph into a look of disgust.</p><p>"Not when you do that!" Yein shuddered expressively.</p><p>Gyujin, feeling a bit braver now that the ice had been broken between them, asked with a teasing smile, "so do you think I'm cute otherwise?"</p><p>"Of course!" And then Yein uncurled himself and reached out, farther than Gyujin had expected, and ruffled Gyujin's hair. "You're my cute dongsaeng." Gyujin laughed and swatted Yein's hand away lightly, trying to keep his demeanor as light-hearted as Yein's, but he must have appeared a bit more flushed and breathless than he meant it to, because he caught Yein sending him a shrewd glance as he tried to pat his hair back into some semblance of order. </p><p>And then Yein had to go mess up his heart again by putting his things aside, getting up, and pushing Gyujin's hands out of the way with a, "here, let me." Gyujin sat very still, focusing on keeping his eyes straight ahead while Yein gently prodded and rearranged his hair. He was so preoccupied with holding still, that when Yein poked him in the shoulder and said, "Gyujin, breathe," he discovered that he had not in fact been breathing. An easy fix, but one accompanied by more blushing as Yein stifled a snort far too close to his ear before going back to his chair, far enough away to where Gyujin (and his heart rate) could finally relax again.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Don't worry, I'm almost done with the next chapter so I will hopefully be able to post it in a week or so (because writing this takes me a long time somehow? Also I thought this would be a shorter story but that just isn't happening? -.-)</p><p>Preview of Chapter Six: The Third Meet-Cute Part 2: Yein</p><p>He'd totally forgotten about creepy old dude until he came back from the backroom and saw him looming over the counter with a weird smile on his face. Yein resisted the urge to turn tail and head right back into the back room, and barely managed to paste... if not a smile at least a bland customer service face on as he stepped forward slightly. "Can I help you?"</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. The Third Meet-Cute Part 2: Yein</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Alright everyone! Thanks for waiting! As a reward I bring you the longest and most action-packed chapter so far. To ease the nerves I recommend a SUPER cute and fluffy YouTube video of Gyujin x Sunyoul clips: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yjf7OZkKGbI</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Unfortunately, Yein couldn't just sit there and tease Gyujin indefinitely, which was a shame because teasing Gyujin was both fun and surprisingly relaxing since Gyujin was obviously too much of a gentleman to hit back too hard. It was so comfortable to hang out with Gyujin that Yein realized he was already starting to get possessive. He did admit he had a bit of a tendency to be a bit... clingy with his friends, but this sort of possessiveness was rare. The last time it happened was further along in his last relationship, after he'd already developed romantic feelings for them. He wasn't even sure he WAS romantically attracted to Gyujin, and yet he already wanted to have Gyujin with him at all times, to bask in the sort of gentle encouragement he'd seen glimpses of as Gyujin had interacted with his friends the earlier that day.</p><p>Luckily, before he could run his mouth off and get himself into too much more trouble, a late arriving customer came in, so Yein was back on duty. After a quick request to Gyujin to watch his books, Yein slipped back into customer service mode, grabbing Gyujin's empty plate and fork on the way back to the counter to go serve the newest customer. After that, he made another round of the coffee shop, wiping tables and collecting dishes to be washed. A glance at Gyujin assured Yein that he had gone back to reading, and so he went to wash the dishes and do what he could ahead of time so closing up would be just that much quicker.</p><p>He'd totally forgotten about Creepy Old Dude until he came back from the backroom and saw him looming over the counter with a weird smile on his face. Yein resisted the urge to turn tail and head right back into the back room, and barely managed to paste... if not a smile at least a bland customer service face on as he stepped forward slightly. "Can I help you?"</p><p>"Yein-a, beautiful Yein-a. Why won't you look at me," the old guy asked quietly, his voice dripping in saccharine as he slightly leaned forward toward Yein.</p><p>Yein felt a chill go down his spine and squared his shoulders against the feeling, narrowing his eyes at the man. He didn't want to make a scene, but he absolutely would if he had to. He felt in his pocket for his phone... and realized he'd left it at the table with his homework. He was trying to figure out if he could somehow get Gyujin's attention without alerting the rest of the restaurant when he saw a hand reaching out to him from the corner of his vision.</p><p>Yein quickly stepped backwards out of the way and realized the old creepy guy was pushing himself upright from where he'd basically been leaned across the counter, reaching out to try and grab him. Yein hazily decided to sanitize the counter twice that evening while he was cleaning as he felt his mind start fizzing with panic. "This is what I was talking about Yein-a," the old guy continued calmly as if he hadn't just pulled legitimately the creepiest stunt Yein had ever seen in his life, the creepy smile still in place contrasting with the wild look in his eyes. "I come here every day. I'm NICE to you. And you never even give me the time of day. Is it because he's younger? Do you think he's good looking? He's just a college student Yein-a, he can't give you what I can. Maturity is important Yein-a, and so is money. I can give you whatever you want. I have plenty of money Yein-a, you won't have to work here ever again. I can give you beautiful clothes to go with your beautiful body. Do you know you're beautiful Yein-a? I want to show you how beautiful you are..." </p><p>Yein could hardly believe his ears. The man was insane. And incredibly gross and creepy. Yein wanted to douse himself in clorox now too. He immediately started trying to block out his voice as he tried to fight the shaky feeling crawling up his spine and figure a way out of the situation. He was pretty sure the door between the back room and the cafe locked, but he was also pretty sure he wouldn't be able to lock it before creepy guy got to the door, and he didn't want to be any more alone or closer to the guy than he already was. There was no way he'd be able to physically withstand the guy either. Which left the last option, try and talk his way out of it. Not a great option, because it meant he'd actually have to acknowledge the existence of the creepy dude saying creepy things right in front of him, but it wasn't like he had many alternatives. </p><p>But when Yein looked up to try to say something, his words died in his throat. Where the guy had looked just mildly creepy before, he now looked manic, his hands planted on the near side of the counter as if to pull himself over. Yein tried to collect his thoughts again, but instead felt his hands start to shake and his breath speed up as the shaky feeling finally gripped his brain. Yein looked away and locked his hands together behind his back to try to get himself back under control... and saw Gyujin standing behind the guy right as Gyujin cleared his throat.</p><p>The guy whirled to face Gyujin and Yein sagged back against the back counter in relief, holding onto the edge with trembling hands to keep himself up as he watched Gyujin politely, mildly ask the guy, "hey, what's going on over here?" But as mild as Gyujin's voice was, there was no smile present on his face or in his sharp eyes.</p><p>And then, as if in slow motion, Yein watched everything explode. The guy started yelling at Gyujin. Full on spittle-flying-rage-yelling at Gyujin for... taking Yein away? Yein was trying not to listen, focusing instead on how Gyujin calmly took a deep breath and said, "he's not MINE, and he's not yours either. He's his own person. He gets to make his own decisions. And you causing a scene in the middle of the coffee shop isn't going to make him love you." </p><p>Yein let out a strangled laugh because it was true (and also he was starting to feel a bit hysterical) and both pairs of eyes glance back at him. Gyujin gave him a quick, reassuring smile, and Yein wanted to wrap himself in the comfort of it. The other pair of eyes was so angry and cold he could feel them burning his cheek. So vicious was the creepy guy's glare that Yein wasn't completely surprised (but was completely horrified) when the guy suddenly took a wild swing at Gyujin.</p><p>Heart in his mouth, Yein cried out and watched as Gyujin hastily dodged back out of the way, and then again as the creepy guy threw another wild punch, yelling the whole time. And then, all of a sudden, Gyujin stepped in and somehow the creepy guy had fallen backward onto the cement floor. Luckily (or unluckily?) he managed to roll slightly in mid-air so his head didn't hit, but he still fell heavily onto his side and curled up slightly, gasping for air. Yein watched in awe as Gyujin grabbed the guy's right arm, pulling it up and back behind him, rolling him onto his stomach and locking him on the ground as the creepy guy finally got enough breath back to start screaming at Gyujin and Yein interchangeably and writhing around. Gyujin was obviously having trouble keeping him down as the creepy guy tried to push himself over, but luckily one of the last few patrons in the shop, another college kid, came running over to help hold him down. </p><p>Even with both of them holding on, it looked like they were trying to wrestle a big fish, and Yein shivered uncontrollably in fear. Gyujin looked up, serious and focused, right at Yein to say, "Yein-ssi, please call the police." That would be a really good idea, but his cell phone was still over with his homework, and he was pretty sure he was shaking so badly that he would collapse if he let go of the counter. </p><p>"Don't worry, I've already done that," another voice from behind Gyujin cut in, and they both startled, turning to see the two other patrons hovering just past the nearest tables. Both girls had their phones out. The one who'd just spoken had hers to her ear, while the other seemed to be videoing the whole mess. "They'll be here in about five minutes, they said," she continued with a strained smile.</p><p>"Thank you," Gyujin responded seriously with a nod, and then had to turn all of his focus back to holding creepy dude down as he'd started to buck in earnest again, sensing Gyujin's distraction. </p><p>It was the longest five minutes Yein had ever had to go through in his life. No one really talked except for creepy dude who continued to scream hateful, profanity-laced threats at everyone until about minute four, when he finally started to lose his voice. The girls stood huddled together, watching from a safe distance away. Gyujin and the other boy focused on holding the guy down. And Yein kept hanging onto the counter at the back. He briefly wondered if he should start cleaning up now that no one was paying attention to him; it was about closing time anyway. But he couldn't bring himself to look away from the frightening scene, even if every violent wriggle by the big creepy guy made his heart stop briefly in fear and he REALLY felt like he needed to clorox his mind to get rid of all the violent, horrible things the guy was spouting. He felt like his hands had become permanently attached to the back counter, leaving permanent indents in it, and he still couldn't stop shivering. In fact, it was all he could do to keep standing and keep an impassive look on his face.</p><p>Finally, the front door swung open and two uniformed officers entered the cafe, quickly and efficiently making their way to the back and cuffing the creepy old guy who cut off his threats of violence as soon as he saw the police, and instead started screaming (hoarsely) about his own innocence. Yein would have burst out laughing if he wasn't so shaken, but maybe that was just the hysteria talking. Instead he sagged in relief as Gyujin and the other student rolled off the guy. The police asked everyone to stay for questioning while they bundled creepy guy out the door with the other student following closely to help if they needed.</p><p>Gyujin immediately looked to Yein, and Yein wondered if his crumbling nerves showed too much on his face because Gyujin slowly pushed himself off the ground and made his way wearily around the counter to Yein. The stress of the night finally started boiling over as the adrenaline receded and Yein felt the flood of tears threatening to overwhelm him. He looked up and took a shaky breath trying to pause their progress, but then Gyujin put a large, warm hand on his arm and gently asked, "Yein-ssi? Are you alright?" And the dam burst suddenly without warning. </p><p>With a stifled hiccup of a sob, Yein grabbed onto the front of Gyujin's shirt, tugging him forward so he could press his face into Gyujin's shoulder, hiding his tears from the rest of the patrons, biting his lip to distract himself and muffle his tears as best as he could. He felt a little bad about it, but after a second of hesitation, Gyujin murmured, "tell me if this is too much and I'll stop," and then wrapped one warm arm around Yein's shoulders, pulling him in close, and with the other he gently began to stroke Yein's hair. Yein took a shuddering breath and started to relax into Gyujin's hold as the tears kept coming. Normally he would never do this in public ever- it ruined what little masculine credibility he had- but tonight... Right now he desperately needed this comfort and he couldn't bring himself to feel bad about it.</p><p>Luckily, by the time the police had finished interviewing the other witnesses, Yein had calmed down enough to step back, blow his nose, wipe his eyes, and be properly horrified about the condition of Gyujin's shirt. But of course, Gyujin just smiled at him and reassured him that it was fine, he could cover it up with his jacket. And then the officer was calling Gyujin to the table where they were taking witness statements. Gyujin seemed reluctant to go, so Yein pushed him lightly and gave him a slightly watery smile before turning his back on the rest of the world to take a few deep breaths and smooth his hair back into place and get his equilibrium back. He was sure his eyes looked horrible now, but there wasn't anything he could do about that so he decided to square his shoulders and ignore the problem (instead of hiding in the backroom which was a very appealing alternative that he was only barely resisting). </p><p>Instead Yein headed to the front of the cafe to turn off the open sign. The three students were still grouped by the door, and immediately gathered around him to ask if he was alright. Yein felt himself stiffen up at the attention from random strangers, especially embarrassed by the fact that his face was such a mess, but he managed to reassure them that he was fine and thank them sincerely for their help. He was starting to try and figure out how to give himself an out when he saw Gyujin approaching to tell him that it was time for the police to get his statement. </p><p>Now the correct thing to do would have been to simply go back and give his side of the story and call it good. But Yein was tired and his nerves were shot, so instead when he excused himself from the students he grabbed the sleeve of Gyujin's jacket and asked, "come with me for moral support?" </p><p>At Gyujin's look of surprise, Yein immediately let go and tried to laugh it off, but then Gyujin smiled that quick little eye smile and all of a sudden the feeling of butterflies punched Yein in the heart. It was so unexpected that Yein legitimately forgot what was going on for a second and just blinked at Gyujin when he replied, "sure." But only for the second it took Gyujin to raise an eyebrow at him before Yein felt himself start to flush with embarrassment. Which he dealt with by coughing, turning, and walking toward the back without another word, thankful that Gyujin simply followed him.</p><p>Giving his side of the story was the worst, because Yein had to admit that this wasn't just some one off random crazy person AND actually think about what happened long enough to recount the event in as much detail as possible. He was so thankful to have Gyujin sitting next to him, close enough that Yein could press just enough against Gyujin's arm to keep himself grounded and unemotional while answering all of the questions from the police. After a bit of discussion, the police recommended getting a restraining order as opposed to pressing charges, since the guy hadn't actually made physical contact with Yein AND hadn't managed to do any damage to Gyujin. They recommended Yein go to the police station Monday to fill it out, since the station was closed except for essentials at this point in the evening and would be Sunday as well. They also informed Yein they would be calling Seokjin to inform him of the situation after Yein gave them his number and informed them that Seokjin was busy until later that evening. Yein was NOT looking forward to discussing the matter with Seokjin, but since he didn't have any choice in the matter he tried to be polite and accommodating anyway.</p><p>And THEN once they had offered their sincerest thanks and said goodby to the police, the college students were still wanting to stand around and talk. Yein quickly excused himself from the conversation to finish cleaning up the coffee machines and counter area, leaving Gyujin to do whatever he wanted. He was shocked when, not much later, he heard Gyujin's voice from behind him ask, "is there anything I can do to help?"</p><p>Yein pretended he hadn't just almost jumped out of his skin as he carefully set down the cleaning cloth and, turning, saw that it was just he and Gyujin left in the shop. First things first, Yein bowed low. "Thank you SO MUCH for your help. I... I'm so thankful you were willing to step in and help. I..." Yein wanted to convey his appreciation more, but he'd so quickly ran out of words to use to do it. </p><p>Luckily, Gyujin stepped into the breach once again. "It was nothing Yein... hyung." Yein straightened up to see Gyujin had come around to the side of the counter. So close. But not scary. Smiling that happy crinkly smile. Yein felt himself sway slightly toward Gyujin before he caught himself. He didn't hardly KNOW Gyujin. He couldn't just cling to him like he did with Sooil. </p><p>Maybe that's why he felt himself getting irritated for absolutely no reason. "But it wasn't nothing!" Yein's frustration and leftover nerves leaked into his voice again as he gestured toward where the confrontation had taken place. "It was a big thing! And very dangerous! What if he'd had a knife? You could have gotten hurt!" By this point Yein was basically shouting at Gyujin, his voice high and even a little wavery as the emotions of the evening started swirling back around again. And Gyujin, who had slowly walked closer as Yein got more upset, was now looking concerned as he stopping less than an arm's-length away. Yein paused to breathe, and then realized he had no idea where his train of thought was going (and also that he was pretty sure he didn't want to know). So he just stared at Gyujin a bit helplessly and finished with a weak, "so... so don't look so happy about it."</p><p>Yein narrowed his eyes when he saw Gyujin's lips twitch as if he was repressing a smile before he responded, "I'm not HAPPY about getting into a fight, if that's what you're worried about. I don't just go around beating people up for fun."</p><p>Yein pressed his lips together as he sighed through his nose, still agitated. Then (and he blamed this on temporary insanity) he gently took Gyujin's hand and bit him on the side of his thumb. Not extremely hard, but enough so that Gyujin twitched. Then he smoothed over the bite with his other hand before letting go, spinning on his heel, and hastily escaping into the back as he felt his face start to heat up. Not that he felt bad about biting Gyujin in a general sense, but Gyujin's disbelieving laugh had kick started his normal reasoning abilities and he suddenly remembered that biting almost total strangers wasn't exactly a normal thing to do. And also he couldn't get the feeling of the softness of Gyujin's hand out of his mind. Soft but dense. Real, tangible. He slid down the wall and whined quietly, pressing his hands to his burning face, ready to have a minor existential crisis brought on by a heavy dose of embarrassment.</p><p>Unfortunately, before he could get it out of his system, he was interrupted. "Um." Gyujin's voice from RIGHT next to him made Yein twitch and... yelp as he fell over, hand pressed to his wildly beating heart.</p><p>"Don't scare me like that," Yein gasped, turning to face Gyujin who Looked like he was in the process of hastily backing away a few steps with a suspiciously soft look on his face.</p><p>"Sorry, sorry," he responded, raising his hands as if to pacify Yein, who squinted suspiciously at what looked like a tiny half-smile forming on Gyujin's lips. "I was just wondering if there was anything more I could do to help you close up?"</p><p>"Do you know how to clean a bathroom?" That was always Yein's least favorite job, but his hopes were dashed when he saw uncertainty in Gyujin's eyes. "Fine," Yein sighed, waving Gyujin's comment away with his hand as he opened his mouth to make it. "You can mop the floor. Let me help you get started."</p><p>While it didn't go quite as quickly as closing up with one of the senior cafe staff, Gyujin was at the very least adorably eager to please and good at following directions, so it didn't take nearly as long as Yein had feared. Unfortunately, Gyujin had figured out that if he leaned into Yein's space it made Yein squirm, so he'd taken to leaning in to Yein's space, turning on his puppy-dog eyes, and seeking praises after finishing each job. </p><p>It was partially his own fault too, Yein had thought wryly after the third time he had NOT BLUSHED (except maybe a little but he was prepared to pretend otherwise to his dying day) and pushed Gyujin away to do a different task. The first time Gyujin had leaned into his personal bubble seeking praise, he'd patted Gyujin on the head; and like a dog Gyujin had teased that reward out of him every time. However, even though he was in a playful mood Gyujin seemed to very carefully respect around Yein's boundaries. Even though he leaned uncomfortably far into Yein's personal bubble, he never actually touched Yein, and Yein appreciated that so much.</p><p>By the time Sooil finally texted that he was heading out to pick Yein up an hour after the shop formally closed, Yein and Gyujin had finished everything and had somehow ended up sitting next to each other on the (recently cleaned and barely dry) floor of the back room just talking about college and life in general. Nothing too personal, although he'd gushed to Gyujin a little about his younger sister, and Gyujin had complained a little about his rambunctious younger brothers. Gentle complaining though. Clearly he really loved and cared about them like Yein did for his own sister, wanting to give them the best possible opportunities.</p><p>Yein, although still nervous around Gyujin (as he always was around people he'd only recently met), still felt himself relaxing as he smiled softly at Gyujin's animated expressions and gestures. Gyujin was just so legitimately nice, he felt so safe and comfortable around him. Yein found himself quickly losing more and more of his societal persona. He started talking faster and with more animation himself, and would occasionally pat Gyujin on the shoulder to tease him (although that was dangerous because then Gyujin would insist on head pats and the situation became very embarrassing for Yein, because having Gyujin so close to him made his heart do funny things that he really didn't want to acknowledge yet). </p><p>(To be honest, by this point in the evening, even just Gyujin smiling at him with those warm, crinkled up eyes was making Yein feel things and he was annoyed at himself for starting to fall so quickly. He had more important things to do than have a romantic relationship but his body just wasn't cooperating very well. And also it was just very embarrassing that Gyujin was starting to affect him as easily as he affected Gyujin. He really wanted more of an upper hand.)</p><p>Luckily, before Yein got around to saying anything too embarrassing or revealing he received Sooil's text that he was waiting outside. Yein hesitated briefly, and then asked Gyujin, "are you staying on campus? Can we drop you off?"</p><p>"Yes, and I would really appreciate that," Gyujin replied with a smile. Yein took a deep breath to calm his heart down, and then choked on it when Gyujin asked, "do you want me come with you on Monday to get the restraining order? For moral support." And then Yein had to endure Gyujin's worried look and his stretched out a hand hovering in between them in silent question as he coughed. Even though the hand looked big and warm and soft, Yein shook his head as he finally got his breath back, so Gyujin politely withdrew it.</p><p>"Um..." Yein started to speak and then stopped as he tried to make what felt like kind of a big decision on far too few brain cells. He was very tempted to say no. He was a grown adult. He could do these things on his own without help. But he was also pretty sure that if he didn't have someone else holding him accountable to actually get the stupid restraining order he probably wouldn't; even though it really hurt his pride. He wasn't stupid enough to not understand that getting the restraining order would probably make it easier on the cafe in the long run if he continued to work here. Or he could just quit his job, but he REALLY didn't want to do that. He liked Seokjin and Myungjun and even (sometimes) Jungkook. Even the errant thought of quitting for such a minor thing made him feel sad. So swallowing his pride in order to get the restraining order would have to do.</p><p>And THEN he remembered how busy his schedule already was, and started to panic just a bit on how to fit this new problem into his schedule. Maybe if he cancelled on Bitto he'd have enough time in the afternoon? He didn't have anything else between 10:00 and 14:00 so maybe if he skipped lunch he could barely squeeze it in as long as everything went quickly... Yein groaned and ran his hands through his hair in frustration. Why did everything have to be so complicated?</p><p>"What time are you thinking of going?" Gyujin's voice broke into Yein's slightly panicky thoughts.</p><p>Distracted, Yein responded, "I only have time between 10:00 and 14:00 on Monday." When Gyujin hummed in response, Yein leaned in to look at Gyujin's phone and found him perusing the time table for the nearest metro station to campus. </p><p>"Do you want to meet at the station at 10:05? Or would it be better to catch the 10:15 train?"</p><p>Yein quickly retreated back into his own bubble, feeling a sudden urge to rub his ears at the sound of Gyujin's voice so close. Honestly, he hadn't had any trouble earlier! He forcibly got his thoughts back on track by reminding himself that they were just... friendly acquaintances. That's all. A cute dongsaeng helping him out in his time of great embarrassment. "We can try for the 10:05 train, and if we don't make it we could take the 10:15 train I guess," Yein responded hesitantly, carefully looking at his own phone and NOT Gyujin, even though the quiet fist pump he caught in his peripheral vision made his eyes narrow in annoyance. As IF Gyujin could get one up on him.</p><p>But then Sooil texted again that he was waiting, so Yein scrambled up to get his stuff and turn out the rest of the lights instead. Once they got outside, Yein made the introductions while shoving the pile of stuff in the back seat over so Gyujin had a place to sit. Of course Sooil had to coo over Yein making a new friend because he enjoyed embarrassing Yein. Yein glared at Sooil as he felt his cheeks flush again, but of course that had stopped working long ago. Luckily, Sooil kindly moved on to other less embarrassing things as Gyujin laughed softly in the back seat. Yein would have to get him back for that later.</p><p>Unfortunately, Sooil moved on to ask how things had gone at the cafe that evening. Yein thanked every lucky star that Gyujin was quick to follow his lead as Yein smoothed over the end of the day as if it had been an uneventful one. He would probably tell Sooil what happened eventually maybe if he had to, but he didn't want to yet, and he really appreciated Gyujin for not bringing it up. Even when Gyujin slipped up and mentioned they were meeting up on Monday, he was quick to blame it on Yein helping him with an interview for a humanities class he had to take. It wasn't a particularly graceful lie, but it was enough to throw Sooil totally off the scent of what they were actually going to be doing. Yein waited until Sooil was focused on the road before exchanging a glance with Gyujin in the rear-view mirror that he hoped conveyed his appreciation.</p><p>They quickly arrived at Gyujin's dorm (on the other side of the cafeteria from where Yein's was located he noticed), and right as they were slowing down, Gyujin exclaimed, "oh! I just remembered we haven't exchanged phone numbers! Do you mind?" </p><p>Yein narrowed his eyes at Gyujin in suspicion, but Gyujin just gave a wide-eyed suspiciously innocent smile back as Sooil gasped and said, "Yein? Not being social? Shocking!" Yein punched Sooil in the arm before holding out his hand for Gyujin's phone with a sigh.</p><p>"Here," Yein said after he'd added himself as a contact. "For emergencies." And Gyujin just smiled brightly in return even though Yein was pretty sure he looked way too grumpy to elicit that sort of response. </p><p>And then, all of a sudden Gyujin reached forward and quickly ruffled Yein's hair before exiting the car. Yein was briefly frozen in shock before he yelled, "hey wait a minute!" Gyujin carefully closed the door and smirked at him from outside the car as he waved goodbye. Yein rolled down the window as Sooil pulled away laughing to point his finger at Gyujin and threaten, "just you wait!"<br/>
It wasn't the strongest response or really anything much more than childish, but it was at least A response. Yein glared at Sooil and punched him in the arm again and then went back to smoothing his hair back into place, glad the dark hid the blush suffusing his cheeks and that Sooil couldn't hear the wild thumping of his heart. Due to surprise of course. Nothing else.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I'm afraid the next chapter will be significantly shorter, but on the bright side it's almost done so you should see it soon. Hopefully. Maybe.</p><p>Preview: </p><p>Gyujin's heart dropped and he immediately texted back, 'what's wrong?' He put the phone down to finish brushing his teeth and anxiously watched the little dots that meant Yein was writing a reply.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. The Third After Math: Gyujin</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>So. Um. This chapter took me forever to write? And I am very sorry. Also, I'm not sure how to make emojis work when typing this on a computer and I'm too lazy to figure it out, so we're stuck with boring old emoticons until I someday un-lazy myself enough to figure it out. ALSO! I mistakenly thought Gyujin's brothers were older than him- but they are not- so I'm going back to Chapter 6 to edit that new information in. </p><p>In honor of Kogyeol getting more screen time for the next bit of story, please enjoy this YouTube clip of him (and Bitto and Kuhn) repeatedly losing it during Jinhoo's birthday V-Live over a spider bite on Jinhoo (Mosquito Man)'s neck: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvZdhy4dbmo</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>When Gyujin woke up the next morning, the first thing he did was check his phone to make sure the events of the night before weren't some feverish dream he'd imagined. But no, there in his phone's contacts was a new name, Seon Yein. Gyujin hummed happily and rolled back and forth on his bed in excitement before he was jostled by a very grumpy-looking, fresh out of bed Minsoo kicking him with one stupidly long leg. </p><p>"Alright loverboy," Minsoo said, voice scratchy with sleep as he yawned and plopped down on Gyujin's bed (as Gyujin quickly moved his feet out of the way). "I gave you a pass last night because it was late. Full story, please."</p><p>Gyujin heaved a put-upon sigh and pushed himself upright, turning to sit next to his friend so Minsoo could slump onto his shoulder with a yawn. "It was... a lot more eventful than I'd expected," Gyujin began slowly, and then yelped when Minsoo poked him with one of his bony fingers. "Not like that!" He scowled at his friend who just raised an eyebrow back.</p><p>And so Gyujin slowly spun the story of what happened the night before starting with the lost card and the phone call, then Yein coming to sit with him, and then... "so I was sitting there minding my own business when all of a sudden I see the older guy across from me get up and walk to the counter. No big deal right? Except when I glance back the dude is REACHING ACROSS THE COUNTER trying to grab Yein." Gyujin could feel the hot rage that he rarely felt wash over him again as Minsoo straightened slowly to look at him in shock.</p><p>"No way."</p><p>"Not kidding. This dude is laid flat out over the counter reaching for Yein." Gyujin rubbed his hand on his leg, trying to get rid of the shaky burst of adrenaline running through him again just recounting the scene.</p><p>"What the-" Minsoo breathed and swore sincerely, eyes wide.</p><p>"Exactly." Gyujin shook his head, and then continued, "so I got up and walked over. I don't remember exactly what all was said, but I remember he was saying some pretty disgusting stuff to Yein and I got... really angry? I remember kind of asking him what was going on, but then he started screaming at me too. Just the ugliest, dumbest stuff you can imagine. So I said something about how Yein didn't belong to him and he tried to punch me."</p><p>Minsoo's mouth was gaping open at this point, and Gyujin decided not to tease him about it for once. "So I kind of just... took him down like we learned in that self defense course we took last year for fun. Remember?" Minsoo gave a slight nod of his head. "So... yeah. It happened really fast, and he obviously had no idea how to fight or anything so I got him down easy. But he was a really big guy, so luckily another guy there helped me keep him down until the police could get there and arrest him." </p><p>Gyujin hesitated, and then decided to leave out the part about Yein crying on his shoulder. Instead he said glossed over it by saying, "Yein was pretty shaken up by the whole thing so after we waited for the police to get all of our statements, I stayed to help him finish cleaning up the cafe. And then we sat and talked until Yein's friend Sooil picked us up in his car."</p><p>When Minsoo just continued to stare at him, Gyujin added, "and also I talked my way into stopping by the police station with him on Monday to fill out a restraining order because apparently THAT is not enough justification for charges." Gyujin scoffed angrily, even if he was secretly glad for an excuse to spend more time with Yein.</p><p>When Minsoo continued to just stare at him, Gyujin waved a hand in front of his face. "Uh... hello? Anyone alive in there?"</p><p>"Dude." Gyujin raised an eyebrow at Minsoo as Minsoo finally looked at him. "Again, what the ****. What sort of **** actually does something that obviously **** in public?"</p><p>Gyujin laughed wryly in agreement. "That's why we're going to get a restraining order on Monday. The guy was completely unhinged, and the most they could do was fine him and hold him overnight. Luckily Yein isn't working tomorrow, so hopefully there's no chance we'll see him until after we get that sorted out."</p><p>Minsoo swore creatively and collapsed over onto his back, kicking his gangly legs over Gyujin's lap. Then he lifted his head back up to look at Gyujin. "How are you so calm about this?"</p><p>Gyujin blinked at Minsoo. "I'm not? My hands get shaky with adrenaline when I even think about it. And now when I think back on it, I'm so angry that I didn't punch the guy when I had a chance. I guess I was just in protect-mode or something."</p><p>Minsoo rolled his eyes at Gyujin before shaking his head and rolling off the bed, standing up and ruffling Gyujin's hair and then pushing his head away with a wry smile. "You're such a knight-in-shining-armor type. You're going to make the rest of us look bad."</p><p>"Minsoo-hyung, stop it," Gyujin whined, batting Minsoo's hand away irritably. "I'm not that great, anyone would've done the same." Minsoo scoffed at him, and then wandered off to the bathroom area to get ready for the day shaking his head. </p><p>Speaking of yesterday... Gyujin hesitated and then texted Yein, 'how are you doing today?' He didn't hear anything immediately, so he got out of bed and got dressed, banging on the bathroom door just to annoy Minsoo when he was done. It earned him a whack on the head, but it was worth it anyway.</p><p>It wasn't until Gyujin was done shaving and almost through brushing his teeth that he got a response from Yein. 'bad.'</p><p>Gyujin's heart dropped and he immediately texted back, 'what's wrong?' He put the phone down to finish brushing his teeth and anxiously watched the little dots that meant Yein was writing a reply.</p><p>'Seokjin called and my roommate herd about what happy ned and theyre both all worries about it and now they w nat to follow me everywhere -.-+' Gyujin blinked at the message and squinted slightly as he tried to figure out what Yein was saying. He felt Minsoo drape himself over his shoulders so he could also see what was happening.</p><p>"Is that Yein?" He asked as Gyujin finally translated it in his head.</p><p>"Yeah," Gyujin responded. "Seokjin's his boss at that cafe."</p><p>"Even the way he texts is cute," Minsoo said mournfully, and sighed gustily in Gyujin's ear, which made Gyujin lurch to the side to try to get rid of his friend, the overgrown limpet. </p><p>Instead of acknowledging Minsoo's inflammatory statement, Gyujin texted back, 'did they already release him?'</p><p>There was another pause, during which Minsoo wound himself more firmly around Gyujin's back to deter Gyujin's efforts to shake him off, and then Yein responded, 'I guess so not sure but probly if Seokjin was worried like that ;-.-' </p><p>"I think I like this Seokjin guy," Minsoo murmered next to Gyujin's ear.</p><p>"Yeah, he seems like a good guy," Gyujin responded, twitching vainly away from Minsoo's voice (but mostly breath) on his ear again. To Yein he said, 'I guess I can see why, but that's still rough. did you have anything going today besides homework?'</p><p>"What, planning to invite him somewhere?" Gyujin didn't even have to check the mirror to hear the smirk in Minsoo's voice. </p><p>"Oh shut up," Gyujin responded, flicking him in the ear. "I'm being nice enough to let you be nosy. If you're just going to tease me I'll take away your text-message-reading privileges." </p><p>Minsoo laughed and moved away of his own accord just as the next text message came in. 'not much,' read the reply, 'I have to practice with Changhyun for his final at some point, but otherwise it's just homework and projects and studying. T.T'</p><p>Without thinking much about it, Gyujin typed back, 'well if you need a distraction from the fussing, you can come hang out with us in the engineering lounge on our floor. It's pretty quiet and no one outside of the dorm knows about it so you wouldn't have to worry about random people wandering through.'</p><p>"Wow Gyujin! I didn't realize you were so smooth!" Minsoo had wandered back over when he saw Gyujin typing again, and whacked him lightly on the arm. Gyujin blinked at him in the mirror before reading his message again.</p><p>"I didn't mean it like that," he said, annoyed as he felt his ears start to get a little warm anyway.</p><p>"Mhm, sure you don't." Minsoo chortled and then danced away when Gyujin tried to whack him on the head.</p><p>Gyujin shook his head at his friend and checked his phone when he heard the text message ding. 'hmm... let me think about it &gt;.&gt;'  read Yein's message. Gyujin felt silly about feeling so deflated about receiving such a quick no. There really was no reason for Yein to take him up on that offer, especially since he probably had other people he could hang out with that he knew better.</p><p>His disappointment must have been more obvious than he thought, because Minsoo wandered back over to ruffle his hair and coo at him, "aw poor Gyujin-ie, does his crush not want to hang out with him?"</p><p>Gyujin batted his friend's hand away and scowled at him before finishing washing his face and getting ready for the day of homework, projects, and studying. Once he'd finally finished getting dressed, he glanced over to his roommate who was surprisingly still sprawled on his back on his bed staring at the ceiling. "Minsoo-hyung, what's up?"</p><p>"Nothing much interesting," came Minsoo's quick reply, and Gyujin swatted him lightly on the knee with a laugh in response before sitting down on his own bed and looking at him expectantly. "Do you think it's immature to play online games," Minsoo finally asked the ceiling, before side-eyeing Gyujin.</p><p>"Huh? I mean..." Gyujin thought for a second. "If that's all you do maybe, but plenty of people play games, it isn't like it's just a kid thing. Why?"</p><p>"That was one of the reasons we broke up I guess," Minsoo turned his attention back to the ceiling, his face carefully neutral even though Gyujin could see his hands restlessly playing with his comforter and the tension in his shoulders. "She didn't like how much time I spent playing games."</p><p>Gyujin briefly closed his eyes against his sudden desire to throttle Minsoo's ex. Keeping his voice intentionally mild, he asked, "I thought we agreed she was a terrible person and therefore anything she said should be ignored?"</p><p>Minsoo huffed out a little laugh, and Gyujin was relieved to see his shoulders get marginally less tense. "But what if she was right about that?"</p><p>Gyujin looked at his friend, debating his response. "I mean, I guess there's a lot of people that think that way, but they just don't sound like much fun to hang out with." He paused, smiling when Minsoo snorted and finally let go of the comforter to rest one arm above his head. "Either way, I'm pretty sure she was just using that as an excuse to be a terrible person. Besides, if you quit playing, who's going to carry me?"</p><p>Minsoo laughed again, finally smiling over at Gyujin. "It's your own fault for playing tanks all the time."</p><p>"Well, with you carrying it's not like I need to worry about playing anything else," Gyujin retorted with an answering grin. "Besides, nobody else likes tanking so it makes it faster to duo-queue." </p><p>Satisfied that Minsoo seemed to be feeling a bit better as he picked up his phone again, Gyujin pushed himself off his bed and went to grab a bottled shake from the fridge for breakfast. He'd really let himself go his freshman year and was trying to keep a closer eye on his diet since then. "Do you want a shake for breakfast?" He asked the question while checking the contents of their minifridge, making a mental note to stop by the corner store to grab some more either that evening or the day after. </p><p>He heard Minsoo hum in thought, before replying, "nah, I'll grab something at the coffee shop downstairs." Technically the coffee shop was in the lobby of the student center next door, but that was still downstairs, so.</p><p>Gyujin eyed the shake in his hand before deciding to stick it back in the fridge. "Maybe I'll tag along and get something there too then."</p><p>"I thought you were on a diet?" Minsoo teased him, pulling on his coat and scarf.</p><p>"I am, just because I'm on a diet doesn't mean I can't enjoy their breakfast muffins," Gyujin replied with a sniff, grabbing his own coat.</p><p>By the time they arrived at the tiny hole-in-the-wall coffee shop, there was a pretty long line of late-rising students ahead of them. Luckily, Gyujin was able to snag one of the last breakfast muffins. He tried not to look on enviously as Minsoo ordered himself a large latte and a breakfast wrap. If he was a lesser person he would be very jealous of his friend's metabolism. </p><p>They decided to waste a little time eating at one of the tables in the lobby, chatting with the other engineering students who were wandering by. There was no sign of Hwanhee or Xiao, but those dorm-mates were notoriously late risers so they didn't expect to see them before noon anyway. </p><p>They decided to grab their things and study in the library like usual, and they were halfway there when Gyujin got a text from Yein: 'does the offer of your engineering lounge still stand? ;&gt;.&gt;'</p><p>Gyujin hesitated. "Minsoo, I may have to duck out of our library plans."</p><p>"Oh really?" Minsoo turned to look at him, and he must not have been doing a good job of hiding his feelings, because Minsoo immediately narrowed his eyes suspiciously.</p><p>"Ah, well it seems like Yein wants to use the engineering lounge after all," Gyuin replied, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly, the delayed excitement starting to fizz through his insides.</p><p>Minsoo heaved an exaggerated sigh, and then smirked at Gyujin. "I guess I'd better go too to make sure you kids behave yourself."</p><p>Gyujin scowled at him, but shrugged. And then he paused, suspicion flashing through his mind. Putting on his most innocent face he said, "oh good, so you didn't know Yein was older than me either?" He was gratified to watch the same stunned look he'd most likely been sporting the day before cross Minsoo's face as he gaped at him.</p><p>"No way. He's older than you?"</p><p>Gyujin laughed at his friend as he turned to head back to the dorm. "You'd better check birthdays at some point before you get too friendly!" He laughed again when Minsoo gently shoved him from behind before responding to Yein: 'yes. right now? I'm not there yet but I can meet you at the front of the engineering dorm in ten minutes.'</p><p>They hadn't gone far before Gyujin got a response, 'alright, I have to go get my stuff anyway. see you soon! ;&gt;.&lt;' He gave into the temptation to clasp his phone to his chest and sigh dramatically, laughing when Minsoo cuffed him lightly on the back of his head.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>The next chapter runs concurrently and it's basically done I think, so hopefully it won't take me TOO long to get it uploaded. </p><p>Preview for Chapter 8: The Third After Math: Yein</p><p>"Yein-a." Yein's stomach dropped when he heard the serious tone of Seokjin's voice. All the worry and anxiety of the day and night before came rushing back to clog his throat and he turned what he hoped was a very good poker face away from Changhyun, swallowing hard against the anxiety to clear his throat.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. The Third After-Math: Yein</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Boy oh boy, another chapter! Don't expect the next one to come as quickly though... that one is still having difficulty coming together but I promise I'm still working on it, even if it takes a little bit! Also, Up10tion did another formal group V-Live thing! And some incredibly kind soul added English subs! If you want to watch it, go here: https://www.vlive.tv/post/1-21840571 My favorite tidbit is Gyujin talking about how Sunyoul makes people want to protect him at 5:35-45. ... yup. Anyway, on with the fictional story...</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Yein was not having a great morning. He'd gone straight to bed after washing up the night before (luckily Changhyun had already fallen asleep), but he'd had a lot of trouble getting to sleep. Even when he did eventually drop off to the familiar background of Changhyun's snoring (only slightly deafened by his earplugs), it felt like he'd immediately drop into a nightmare of long arms reaching for him as he pressed back against an unyielding wall with nowhere to run. He woke up each time terrified, breathing hard, and more and more frustrated with his sub-conscious. </p><p>It got to the point where somewhere around 5:00am he woke up in tears and he just refused to go back to sleep after that. Instead he grabbed his tablet to work on one of his papers due the next week, pulled his covers over himself so the light wouldn't wake Changhyun, and got to work on doing something actually productive. At least the adrenaline left over from the day before and his too-many nightmares was good fuel for writing. </p><p>Around 7:00am Changhyun's alarm went off, and Yein turned off his tablet and laid down feigning sleep. He waited about half an hour more before sitting up and working on his tablet like a normal person. Luckily, Changhyun wasn't a morning person, so Yein knew he had at least another half hour before Changhyun started getting suspicious about why he was up that early. To delay that conversation, Yein scurried off to the bathroom after Changhyun exited, and while Changhyun was distracted getting his coffee Yein made sure to use a little extra concealer under his eyes to hide the effects of his tumultuous night.</p><p>In fact, by 8:00am Yein was feeling almost like normal again and just getting ready to go to breakfast in the student cafeteria when he got a phone call. From Seokjin. Yein swore softly, hoping this wasn't about what he thought it was going to be. Hopefully Seokjin was just calling about some minor clarifications, maybe changing the schedules around.</p><p>"Yein-a." Yein's stomach dropped when he heard the serious tone of Seokjin's voice. All the worry and anxiety of the day and night before came rushing back to clog his throat and he turned what he hoped was a very good poker face away from Changhyun, swallowing hard against the anxiety to clear his throat.</p><p>"Yes hyung? Do you need something?" Yein aimed for his normal bright and cheery, but even he could tell there was something off and he could practically hear Changhyun's head turn to look at him in concern.</p><p>"Yein-a, where are you?" </p><p>That confused Yein, but at least that was a question with an easy answer: "my dorm room."</p><p>"Is your roommate there with you?" Yein chanced a glance over his shoulder to check and, yes, there was Changhyun quietly leaning against the opposite wall, watching him intently from under his bangs. </p><p>Yein wasn't quite sure how or whether to acknowledge Changhyun, so he just turned away again and answered, "yes hyung."</p><p>"Yein-a, could I please talk to your roommate, or maybe you could put him on speaker phone?" Yein felt his insides hollow out in... fear? anger? trepidation? embarrassment? He wasn't sure what combination of emotions it was, but it wasn't pleasant.</p><p>"But why hyung?" Yein was stalling. He knew it, Seokjin knew it, probably even Changhyun knew it. </p><p>"Yein, do I need to come over there and have this talk in person? Because I absolutely will." That startled a small laugh out of Yein.</p><p>"Hyung, you don't even know where I live!"</p><p>"I could find out," Seokjin threatened, and Yein was glad to hear that he was also teasing. Although, knowing Seokjin-hyung, he would absolutely follow through and figure out some way to make Yein really regret making him do that. Nicely of course. Because in spite of the fact he was a bit naggy, Yein knew for sure that Seokjin cared a lot for the people around him. Especially when Seokjin's tone turned soft and serious. "Please Yein-a."</p><p>That, more than anything, convinced Yein to put the phone in speakerphone mode and hold it out toward Changhyun, even if his stomach rolled with embarrassment at what he was guessing was to come. In fact, once Changhyun took the proffered phone, Yein curled himself into a ball on the floor, leaning against the wall and definitely not meeting anyone's eyes in anticipation of what was to come.</p><p>"Yein-a?" Yein could hear Seokjin's voice emanating from the phone, and Changhyun sat down against the wall across from him, silently holding the phone out for Yein to answer.</p><p>Yein scowled and responded, "yes hyung, you're on speaker phone."</p><p>"Oh good." Seokjin's somewhat garbled voice echoed slightly off the walls as Yein put his hands over his head as if to shield himself from Seokjin's words. "Last night, Yein was attacked by a man at the cafe who had apparently been stalking him there for at least a week before that." </p><p>Yein whined quietly, mostly in embarrassment, but felt he HAD to cut in and say, "he didn't even touch me, just... threatened me I guess."</p><p>"Yein-a he was REACHING OVER THE COUNTER towards you while you were very obviously backing away. That is as much of an attack as throwing a punch." Yein whined again, covering his face with his hands in embarrassment, holding onto that emotion to cover up the darker, fear-based ones roiling in his gut. He didn't even want to look at Changhyun's face; he was pretty sure he wasn't going to like what he saw.</p><p>"Are you ***** kidding me?" Ah. Yes, that would be Changhyun's angry side coming out. Yein nervously smoothed his hair down.</p><p>"We handled it hyung, it turned out fine!" Yein knew he was whining at this point, but he wasn't sure of what else to do. He really didn't want this to become such a big thing; he'd rather put it all behind him. </p><p>"Yein, he's already back on the street!" Seokjin practically yelled the last part, and all of a sudden Yein felt all his emotions gathering in his chest. He pushed them away. He was a grown, adult male. Sure he had a baby face, but he could take care of himself! Mostly. He clasped his hands together around his legs to hide the tremors he felt.</p><p>"So? I'm not scheduled to go in to work until after Gyujin and I fill out the restraining order. It'll be fine!" Yein wanted it to be fine. So badly did he want that to be the end of it. But when he sneaked a glance up through his bangs, the flat stare on Changhyun's face and Seokjin's gusty sigh through the phone's speaker indicated that would not be the case.</p><p>"Yein-a..." Seokjin's voice was gentle again, and careful in a way that made Yein want to scream and hit things. "That man is the type of person who doesn't take no for an answer. He's not going to stop just because he was forcibly removed once. In fact, he's probably going to be fueled by more anger. Namjoon and I have discussed this, and we both think that sooner or later he's going to track you back to the college and we don't want you to face him alone. I'm just asking that for now you don't go anywhere alone. Can you do that Yein-a? For me?"</p><p>Yein's mind flashed back to his nightmares from the night before, to the crazed smile, the vicious eyes, and he couldn't control a full-body shiver as he slumped back against the wall, the fight going out of him. "Fine." He hated how soft and shaky his voice came out. He refused to be a delicate flower. He coughed to clear his throat and tried again. "Fine, have it your way." This time it was a better approximation of normal, with just enough grudging acquiescence to mask the fact that even though he was gripping his hands together tightly around his faded jeans they were definitely shaking. </p><p>"Thank you Yein-a," Seokjin's voice was still way too gentle and Yein took a deep breath to push back the sudden rush of tears. He wasn't sure where they came from, but he hadn't invited them and he swallowed hard trying to get them to go away. "Um, roommate-sshi?"</p><p>"Changhyun," Changhyun added, his voice deeper and rougher than usual this early in the morning. </p><p>"Ah, Changhyun-sshi! A pleasure to meet you! I'm Yein's boss from The Beanery, Seokjin. Thank you for taking care of our Yein-ie!"</p><p>"Ah! Hyu-ung," Yein whined, hiding his face in his hands. At the very least the embarrassment over that nickname was a welcome distraction. For once.</p><p>"It's nice to meet you. Thank you for making me aware of the problem," Changhyun said, and when Yein peeked through his fingers he could see the ghost of a smirk on Changhyun's face. Yein scowled at him and very narrowly resisted the urge to stick out his tongue in response.</p><p>"It's alright Yein-ie, I'm done nagging for now! See you tomorrow evening!" Yein could practically see Seokjin's bright smile beaming at him as he sighed.</p><p>Changhyun quietly handed the phone back to Yein so he could end the call, and raised an eyebrow at him. Yein pretended not to notice as he said, "yes hyung, see you later," with a sigh before hanging up. When he tentatively looked up at Changhyun, the smile was gone.</p><p>Changhyun sighed and said, "alright. What exactly happened last night?"</p><p>"Ah..." Yein looked back at his phone again to avoided Changhyun's gaze, and noticed he'd gotten a message from Gyujin at some point earlier. So instead of responding to Changhyun he typed back a one word response to Gyujin's inquiry about how he was doing: 'bad.' </p><p>When Gyujin's 'what's wrong?' came back almost immediately, he realized that was probably a bit too exaggerated, so Yein quickly typed back, 'Seokjin called and my roommate heard about what happened and they're both all worried about it and now they want to follow me everywhere -.-+'</p><p>Yein glanced back up as soon as he pressed send, saw Changhyun's raised eyebrows again, and hesitated slightly about how to tell it. At least, how to recount what happened in the least dramatic way possible. "Umm... There's not much more to the story. He got angry and attacked a..." Yein hesitated before deciding not to give a name (it might indicate he had any sort of feelings whatsoever towards Gyujin), "college kid who came over and told him to back off. The guy managed to knock him down and (with the help of another patron) sit on him until the police arrived and they hauled him off, but I guess they only held him overnight?"</p><p>Changhyun's eyebrows had raised further and further over the course of Yein's story, and Yein fidgeted in the silence afterward. As Changhyun let his head drop back and gazed blankly at the wall above his head. "****." Changhyun shook his head and smiled wryly at Yein. "Never a dull moment with you, huh?"</p><p>Yein scowled at him and stood up, brushing his hands off on his jeans. "Well hopefully after finals it'll get a bit duller." </p><p>He was putting on his shoes to leave when Changhyun remarked, "I suppose if I'm escorting you to breakfast I'd better get dressed." Yein turned to look at Changhyun again and, realizing he was still in his pajamas, sighed and nodded. He hoped Changhyun didn't take too long, he was hoping breakfast would help ease the slight headache he could feel lurking behind his temples.</p><p>As he was waiting for Changhyun, Yein checked Gyujin's return message: 'did they already release him?'</p><p>Yein managed to suppress a shudder this time, but not by much. In an effort to make light of the situation, Yein responded, 'I guess so not sure but probly if Seokjin was worried like that ;-.-' It was only after he sent the message that he noticed the spelling mistake, probably a by-product of too-little sleep. He did not look forward to having to double-check absolutely everything else he wrote for the rest of the day.</p><p>Changhyun eventually finished getting ready, and though he received it right as they were walking out the door, Yein waited until they reached the bottom floor of the dorm to read Gyujin's response: 'I guess I can see why, but that's still rough. did you have anything going today besides homework?'</p><p>Yein quietly paused to respond to Gyujin's message, hoping Changhyun wouldn't notice and would continue on without him. Unfortunately, Changhyun just stopped and smirked at him, leaning against the wall next to the door. Yein stuck out his tongue at Changhyun, before tilting his head back to think about his schedule for the day. 'not much,' Yein finally replied, 'I have to practice with Changhyun for his final at some point, but otherwise it's just homework and projects and studying. T.T'</p><p>He and Changhyun had only just stepped out of the dorm when he got a return message: 'well if you need a distraction from the fussing, you can come hang out with us in the engineering lounge on our floor. It's pretty quiet and no one outside of the dorm knows about it so you wouldn't have to worry about random people wandering through.'</p><p>'hmm... let me think about it &gt;.&gt;' Yein responded, and then put his phone in his pocket so he and Changhyun could finally go get breakfast.</p><p>As they walked, Yein tried to consider the offer objectively. He was pretty sure Gyujin was just being nice because he was a seriously nice guy. But, when he thought about Gyujin and nice in the same sentence, his mind started filling in images of his smile, his eyes, the warm comfortable feeling of being hugged by him... Yein felt his face start to heat up and ducked his head further down in his scarf in hopes no one would notice. Obviously it wasn't safe for him to be around Gyujin until he got his feelings under control.</p><p>On the other hand, Gyujin did seem to understand how to be quiet and study, so they didn't HAVE to interact. Also, Yein suddenly realized that this whole "must be with someone else at all times" dumb buddy system Seokjin had asked him to do probably meant he couldn't just hole up in an individual study room to do his homework in the library like normal. He considered floating the idea by Changhyun, but then he remembered all of the study rooms had glass doors and no locks and... that suddenly seemed like a very bad idea after all. Yein tried to suppress another shudder, but from the worried glance he caught Changhyun shooting at him, he was sure he hadn't entirely succeeded.</p><p>It was busy in the cafeteria, but instead of being mildly annoyed with the hustle and bustle like normal, Yein found himself twitchy and nervous as people wandered here and there, chatting with their friends. None of his mental reassurances seemed to dispel the tension in his back as he put on his blandest face and tried to focus only on getting his food. He was glad he didn't see anyone else he recognized, not that his friends usually ate in the cafeteria. Most of them lived in the apartments where they had their own kitchen, or off-campus like Sooil.</p><p>When they finally sat down with their food, Yein relaxed slightly and then asked Changhyun, "what do you have to do today? How will this even work?"</p><p>Changhyun looked up from scowling at his food and shrugged, "well you can either hang out with me in the music building or I guess it would fine if you were alone in the dorm as long as you kept it locked? Did you have other friends you were considering meeting up with?"</p><p>Yein stabbed at his breakfast discontentedly. He had friends, but he hadn't planned to do anything with them today, and he didn't want to interrupt their personal life on such a short notice. Also, he did NOT want to have to explain why he was now on the buddy system to anyone. And spending all day in the dorm... it was so small. Just two beds and the bathroom area with barely any closet or floor space. Instead of making a decision, he asked "what time did you want to practice?"</p><p>"Oh right!" Changhyun smiled his big gummy smile at him, and Yein was taken aback once again at what a totally different person Changhyun looked like when he smiled. "I managed to book a practice room from 4-5pm. I think it should only take another day or so before we're ready to record." He paused and then asked, "do you think your friend Sooil would let us borrow his recording equipment? Otherwise we'll have to rent out the campus stuff and that's a little pricier."</p><p>"I THINK it should be ok," Yein rolled the thought in his mind as he took another bite of his breakfast. "I'll text him after he wakes up to ask." Sooil worked the night shift at the campus radio station on the weekend, so he usually wasn't awake until at least noon on Sundays.</p><p>As they ate, some of Changhyun's music friends wandered by, filling up the rest of the seats at the table, chatting and laughing and complaining about... music major stuff and people Yein didn't know. After politely greeting them, Yein just ate quietly and let the conversation drift around him as he checked his Twitter feed and YouTube channel, scrolling through the latest comments. He really should record another video for his adorable followers. </p><p>He was well done eating when Changhyun finally glanced over at him during a lull in the conversation and raised an eyebrow. "So, where am I dropping you off?"</p><p>Yein suppressed an embarrassed grimace... and then realized he actually hadn't responded to Gyujin. "Just a minute Changhyun-hyung, I need to check something out." Yein took a fortifying breath and typed out a quick message to Gyujin: 'does the offer of your engineering lounge still stand? ;;;&gt;.&gt;'</p><p>It took an agonizing half a minute before Yein got a response: 'yes. right now? I'm not there yet but I can meet you at the front of the engineering dorm in ten minutes.'</p><p>Yein rolled his shoulders to get rid of the sudden tension there at the thought of seeing Gyujin again so soon. He tried to remind himself that Gyujin was just a cute dongsaeng, but even in the quiet of his mind it was obviously a lie. 'alright, I have to go get my stuff anyway. see you soon! ;;&gt;.&lt;' To Changhyun he said, "well I forgot to get my stuff for today when we left the dorm..." he hesitated and glanced at Changhyun's lingering friends, unwilling to say the rest in front of anyone else.</p><p>"Ah, sure. Well, see you guys later!" Changhyun stood up with a broad smile to his friends, ruffling the hair of the guy guy next to him as the rest of his friends laughed and said their own goodbyes to he and Yein, who smiled politely and waved back before turning to silently walk alongside Changhyun back to their dorm.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Preview for Chapter 9: The Fourth Meet-Cute: Gyujin</p><p>He was calm. Relaxed. Definitely not acting like a teenager with a debilitating crush that made him simultaneously feel like he was flying and free-falling into a pit. He took a deep breath in, held it, and tried to release the stress as he breathed out. Then he checked the time again. Less than a minute had passed.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0009"><h2>9. The Fourth Meet-Cute: Gyujin</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>*ahem* Um. Hi! This chapter is coming to you because I saw a few of you have bookmarked this and so I finally forced myself to sit down and work through all of my misplaced anxiety to finish this chapter for you. Like most things, once I actually got going it wasn't as bad as I'd feared... but I am glad that's over with! As for my recommendation for this chapter... I'll recommend 19:18-20:06 in the preview to their recent group live (vlive.tv/video/239371/) where Gyujin's complementing of Sunyoul goes slightly off the rails (don't forget to turn on the english subs).</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Once they got back to the dorm, Gyujin shooed Minsoo upstairs to claim a table. Not that there was usually anyone there- most people studied either in the library or in one of the many snack-friendly study locations on and off campus. Checking his watch, Gyujin let out a relieved sigh when he noted it had only taken them seven minutes to get back. Wiping his slightly sweaty palms on his slacks, he checked his appearance in the entry-way glass, smoothing down his hair and straightening his collar before casually leaning against the side of the building.</p><p>He was calm. Relaxed. Definitely not acting like a teenager with a debilitating crush that made him simultaneously feel like he was flying and free-falling into a pit. He took a deep breath in, held it, and tried to release the stress as he breathed out. Then he checked the time again. Less than a minute had passed. He was really tempted to give himself a verbal pep-talk... out loud... so instead he focused on breathing deeply as he double-checked his calendar, mentally going over the projects, assignments, and other various deadlines coming due.</p><p>Yein and his friend were only two minutes off of the ten they'd estimated. Gyujin almost didn't recognize Yein with his black baseball cap pulled down over his blond hair, a large cream scarf almost covering the bottom half of his face, and an over-sized jean jacket engulfing his upper body. And he definitely didn't recognize the round-faced, dark-haired guy next to him. He assumed this was Yein's roommate... Ch- Chang... something... As they closed the distance, Gyujin pushed off the wall with a warm smile.</p><p>"Hello Yein-hyung! And you must be Yein's roommate?" Gyujin asked the second student politely as they got close enough, extending his hand to the roommate in greeting.</p><p>The student gave Yein a quick side-eye before smiling wide at Gyujin. "Hello," he responded, shaking Gyujin's hand, his deep voice giving Gyujin a small shock. "I'm Changhyun, a third-year music major. Nice to meet you."</p><p>"Nice to meet you, I'm Gyujin a second year engineering student." Gyujin paused for a brief moment of deep internal insecurity about how painfully awkward he must look before mentally shrugging his shoulders and turning to Yein with his best friendly smile "I'm glad it worked out that you could study with us!" </p><p>Yein's smile seemed a bit forced, though considering the circumstances Gyujin didn't blame him at all. "Thanks for inviting me to study with you guys on such short notice. I hope I'm not inconveniencing you too much."</p><p>"No, not at all!" Gyujin's reply was maybe a touch too quick and a touch too forceful, because he saw Changhyun's eyes narrow suspiciously at him.</p><p>"An engineering major? How'd you end up meeting Yein?" Changhyun suddenly asked. Gyujin froze and looked at Yein wide-eyed. He was a bad liar to begin with, especially in broad daylight. Yein had similarly frozen, and Gyujin attempted to look pitiful in hopes of goading Yein into responding. </p><p>Either the eyes or the uncomfortable pause worked because Yein heaved a deep sigh and mumbled, "Gyujin was there last night."</p><p>"Wait, are you the Gyujin who's going to..." Changhyun paused and glanced around to make sure they were alone, lowering his voice so no one else could hear, "... go with Yein to get the restraining order?"</p><p>Gyujin nodded, wondering how much Changhyun knew.</p><p>Changhyun narrowed his eyes again at Gyujin, then at Yein, and asked, "were you also the 'college kid' who took the guy down?" </p><p>Gyujin glanced at Yein again, but Yein was busy picking invisible lint off his scarf, so with a mental shrug Gyujin nodded again. "Yeah, although I did have to get help from another guy to keep him down." He smiled ruefully at Changhyun who suddenly clapped him pretty hard on the shoulder.</p><p>"Thanks for taking good care of our Yein-a," Changhyun said seriously, then smirked and added, "he's a bit prickly and whiny, but he's a good kid," as Yein let out a squawk of indignation.</p><p>"Alright that's enough!" Yein intervened, waving his hands between the two of them. Gyujin could see that his ears poking out from between the baseball cap and the scarf were light pink. Cute. Yein lightly pushed Changhyun away. "Ok, you can go now!"</p><p>"Aw Yein-ie! Are you finally coming out of your shell? Just gonna push your hyung around now?" Gyujin watched in amusement as Yein scowled at and then punched his widely grinning friend in the arm. "Ouch Yein! I need that arm to play the accompaniment!"</p><p>"And you need ME if you want to have anyone to accompany," Yein pointed out to his friend, deliberately poking him in the same spot he'd just punched as Changhyun finally dodged away, laughing. Yein continued, his volume slowly rising, "I could just back out you know, since you don't seem to need me that much you could go off and find someone better!"</p><p>"Sorry, sorry, sorry," Changhyun chuckled, quickly backing away from the very mutinous-looking Yein. "You're the best Yein-a! I'll see you later! Enjoy your study group!" </p><p>Gyujin smiled and waved back at Changhyun as he then turned and headed off to... wherever he was going... before holding the door open for Yein. For a moment he wasn't sure if Yein would accept, but then Yein sighed and grumpily made his way inside. Since he didn't seem to be in a very good mood, Gyujin kept his own voice mild as he gave Yein a brief tour of their admittedly sparse surroundings on the way to the stairs. He was pleased to see Yein had finally relaxed by the time they entered the stairwell without meeting anyone of note.</p><p>Halfway up the stairs Gyujin suddenly stopped and turned to ask Yein a question, startling both himself and Yein with how close they suddenly were. "Oh sorry," Gyujin said, flustered, as he backed a step upward, reaching out in case Yein's flinch backward caused him to overbalance (luckily it didn't, Gyujin was pretty sure he couldn't have done much to help anyway). "Ah, anyway... I'm so sorry I forgot to tell you earlier, but I'd already agreed to study with my friend Minsoo, so he's already there. I'm sorry, I didn't intend to spring it on you! I mean if you're uncomfortable..." Gyujin trailed off, stopping just barely short of wringing his hands together.</p><p>Yein glanced up at him and the suspicion in his eyes quickly thawed to a slight smile. "It's fine. I'm really the intruder here. Please don't kick your friends out or change your plans on my account!" </p><p>Gyujin was tempted to argue that he would be more than happy to ditch his friends for more alone-time with Yein, but he was positive that would scare Yein off more... and maybe he needed at least one friend to distract him from spending all his time gazing creepily at Yein (although if he had a choice Minsoo would definitely be last on the list; he didn't NEED to give his friend more blackmail material). Instead he smiled back and said, "well if you feel uncomfortable in any way please let me know and we can try to figure something else out." </p><p>Gyujin physically felt the sudden warmth of Yein's responding smile wash over him as Yein softly replied, "alright. Thank you." Gyujin nodded stiffly and turned, trying to remember how to get all his limbs organized in order to walk up stairs, trying to figure out if he wanted Yein to see the blush he was sure was staining his ears or not.</p><p>They were quiet the rest of the way to the fourth floor lounge where Minsoo was waiting. Gyujin was glad to see through the glass walls that they seemed to have the room all to themselves. Minsoo had commandeered a large swath of the round table off to the side and already had textbooks and notebooks and graph paper scattered in a wide arc around his computer. Gyujin shook his head with a smile and opened the door with his keycard, holding it open for Yein to enter first as he called, "did you leave any room for us or were you planning on working by yourself after all?"</p><p>Minsoo looked up with his signature dimply smile and shook his head. "Well just push it out of the way if you need more room. Dongyeol and Hwanhee may stop by today too, I think Dongyeol is going to try and fob him off on us."</p><p>Gyujin heaved a sigh and ran his hand through his hair. "Again?!? I just don't understand those two."</p><p>Minsoo hummed in agreement before getting up and bowing politely to Yein, who returned the gesture. "Hello again, I'm Minsoo, third year eangineering major."</p><p>Gyujin moved forward to set his backpack on the side of the table away from the door while Yein replied, "Ah, yes, hello. I'm Yein, pleased to meet you."</p><p>Gyujin busied himself getting his books and tablet out of his backpack, trying and failing to not get very pleased when Yein chose to sit slightly closer to him than Minsoo, who twinkled knowingly at him when Gyujin accidentally met his eyes. </p><p>"Oh right," Minsoo suddenly piped up as they were getting settled, "you're a third-year too... right Yein? When's your birthday?"</p><p>Yein finished unwinding his huge scarf from his neck and hanging it over the back of his chair first before responding, "November 6."</p><p>"Wait really?" Gyujin looked at Yein wide eyed. "Mine's the 21st! I guess that makes us almost exactly a year apart."</p><p>"When's your birthday Minsoo-ssi?" Yein asked after favoring Gyujin with a slight incline of the head in response.</p><p>"May 19," Minsoo replied with a smile. It turned a bit rueful as he continued, "I don't know why I ended up being the oldest one in our group. It's nice to have someone of my same year here," he continued with a smile at Yein. A smile that Yein returned with a small smile of his own and Gyujin looked down at his homework so he didn't give himself away by glaring at his friend over something so minor.</p><p>Conversation died down after that as they each turned to their own pile of homework, with Gyujin occasionally consulting with Minsoo about some engineering concept or another he was unsure on and Minsoo occasionally asking Gyujin for help proof-reading. Yein seemed content to just do his own thing, the peaceful atmosphere only broken by Yein receiving a phone call twenty minutes in. Gyujin watched him pace back and forth outside, fascinated by the tiny expressions flitting across his face as he talked to whoever was on the other end of the phone.</p><p>"You look kind of stupid with your mouth hanging open like that you know," Minsoo remarked mildly, and Gyujin flinched, throwing a remorseful look Minsoo's way.</p><p>"Thanks, I just wanna be able to let him back in when he's done you know?"</p><p>"Uh huh. Sure you do Gyujin," Minsoo teased him, poking him in the arm with one of his long fingers.</p><p>"Oh shut up," Gyujin replied with a slight laugh, batting his friend's hand away. Then he sighed deeply, checking to make sure Yein was still preoccupied with whoever he seemed to be quietly arguing with on the phone. "It's only been a few days... I just don't get why I'm so gone over him."</p><p>"Ah true love," Minsoo teased, poking him again as Gyujin sighed, his eyes drawn once again to Yein's face, his slim frame, his elegant hands... it all made his heart squeeze tighter and tighter in his chest with longing. It was overwhelming and exhilarating and he rubbed his hands on his jeans to try to get rid of the feeling.</p><p>"You know," Minsoo continued thoughtfully after a brief pause, "maybe it's good to get this stage out of the way before you even really start. That way you can actually see any character flaws before you throw yourself in too deep."</p><p>Gyujin felt bad when he saw the melancholy look on Minsoo's face. It suddenly felt like he was lording his crush over his friend who was still in the midst of recovering from his own heartbreak. He was about to apologize when he heard a knock on the door signalling Yein wanted back in, so instead he sent an apologetic glance at Minsoo who most likely didn't see it as he got up to let Yein back in.</p><p>"So I hope you don't mind, but my friend Sooil has invited himself to our study group. He'll be here in about fifteen minutes," Yein informed them, still looking very disgruntled. "I tried to stop tell him no but..."</p><p>"No, no, it's alright!" Gyujin cut in anxiously. "It's not like there's anyone else in here. There's plenty of room if you want to invite more of your friends too!"</p><p>"Oh no, that would be too much," Yein insisted right back, inching past him and into the room. "Me invading your personal group is already too much."</p><p>Gyujin opened his mouth to respond back and was distracted by Minsoo's snort from where he was still sitting at the table. "Really Yein," he said, finally looking up from whatever he'd been working on, "we don't mind studying with more people. It's not like your friends could possibly be rowdier than Hwanhee and Dongyeol."</p><p>Gyujin shuddered exaggeratedly as he made his way back to his seat. "Is there anyone as obnoxious as those two can be?"</p><p>Yein laughed suddenly and Gyujin forced himself not to whip his head around and look... or anything obnoxiously obvious like that. "My friends definitely aren't as loud as Hwanhee."</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Next chapter won't take near as long because (a) I'm about halfway done already and (b) I am VERY excited about what I have written so far. Maybe switching up the viewpoint was just the extra spice I needed...</p><p>Preview for Chapter Ten: </p><p>And maybe he was a little teeny bit jealous of Gyujin as Yein very carefully didn't actually hold his hand, instead gripping Gyujin's fingers and moving them around and bending them randomly as he thought. And ok he was very jealous of Gyujin very obviously trying to paste a serious look on his face while his ears and neck were bright red. But that's ok. Really he was just jealous of a fantasy of something that wasn't real. He wasn't going to be lured in by the fiery passion of a crush anymore since he had good practice in how that turned out in the university. Badly.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0010"><h2>10. The First Meet-Cute: Minsoo</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I REALLY enjoyed writing this chapter, so I hope you enjoy it too! &gt;.&lt; For a video clip I recommend 19:05-19:16 of their school VLive (https://www.vlive.tv/post/1-21636346). For... reasons. &gt;.&lt; Anyway, sorry these always take so long! As well as figuring out from whose point of view to write the next chapter, I decided to start a one-shot about one of the side romances I'm afraid won't get as much airtime as I would like in this story. And... as always these things seem to get away from me and end up significantly longer than I expect them to be... who knows when I'll be done with that. ;;;-.-</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The room settled back into quietness as Minsoo tried to concentrate on his homework again. He really did enjoy mechanical engineering and figuring out the various systems they were learning about, but all of this romantic awkwardness was really throwing off his train of thought. He'd decided to swear off dating for the rest of the year after his last relationship had dissolved into a fiery implosion of lies and accusations and anger, but seeing Gyujin all happy and hopeful and awkwardly navigating the first stages of an unexpected crush made him yearn for a relationship of his own. </p><p>Even if the last... three? Four? Had been... actually terrible. It always started out well but none of his partners, male or female, ever seemed to be as committed as he was. Or maybe it was his fault. He wasn't open enough. Didn't express his love or appreciation or affection enough. That was definitely it. Really, who could blame them for leaving to find someone better? More... everything he wasn't?</p><p>Minsoo was distracted from his bleak thoughts by Gyujin's touch on his arm. "Hyung, Yein-hyung and I are going to go let Sooil-ssi in. We'll be back soon." Minsoo nodded and smiled at them, watching how Yein waited for Gyujin to hold the door open for him and Gyujin smiled in delight at the back of his head. Minsoo shook his head with a smile. Gyujin was pretty adorably obvious with his crush... he really hoped this Yein kid didn't end up stomping all over his feelings.</p><p>Minsoo was deep into figuring out an equation when he heard a commotion outside. He considered ignoring it, but his curiosity got the better of him and he set his work aside with a sigh. When he looked up he saw the most eccentric character standing with Gyujin and Yein. He was little taller than Gyujin and broad shouldered. He was obviously wearing a bit of makeup because no one's lips are that shade of orange in real life, but you could hardly tell when it went so well with his bright yellow sweater and flower patterned jeans. He was even wearing round wire-framed glasses that emphasized his round face even though his wide smiling mouth was still the predominant feature.</p><p>As the door opened, Minsoo could suddenly hear his distinctly deep voice... a voice that reminded him of his favorite dj on the college radio station. He was obviously finishing some sort of story with "... and that's why I prefer the night shift. No more infatuated college girls for me, thanks!" His laugh invited Gyujin to laugh with him, and even Yein and Minsoo smiled involuntarily along.</p><p>"Minsoo-hyung, this is Yein's friend Sooil," Gyujin called as Minsoo stood up and wandered over, curious as to how their heights would measure up. "Sooil-ssi, this is my friend and roommate Minsoo."</p><p>"A pleasure to meet you," Sooil said with a bright smile. "I'm Noh Sooil, otherwise known as Kuhn to my listening audience."</p><p>"Wait, you're DJ Kuhn?" Minsoo halted in shock. So it wasn't just that his voice sounded similar to the calming radio voice that he sometimes listened to when he couldn't sleep... it was the same! When he saw Gyujin smirking off to the side he narrowed his eyes at him. That traitor knew he had a thing for Kuhn's voice. He was definitely going to have to find an appropriate way to get back at him later.</p><p>"Yes, I am. DJ Kuhn at your service!" Sooil swept an exaggerated bow as Minsoo internally cringed from the cheese. Or maybe externally cringed since he heard both Gyujin and Yein snort from the sidelines. Traitors the lot of them.</p><p>"Ah, nice to meet you... Sooil-ssi," Minsoo said firmly reverting to his barely remembered given name. </p><p>"So you listen to the radio station?" Sooil asked brightly as he popped back up to full height. A height that, Minsoo noticed with trepidation, put them exactly at eye-level, though he couldn't say why the thought suddenly made him nervous. Except that maybe Sooil stood a little too close for comfort.</p><p>"Ah, yes," Minsoo said, smiling to hide his discomfort. "Sometimes when I can't sleep."</p><p>"Ooo really? Does my voice calm you down?" Minsoo backed up slightly when Sooil took a step forward, his voice lowering in a closer approximation of what Minsoo often heard over the radio. Minsoo suddenly felt his cheeks suffuse with heat and willed himself to remain calm. Too bad he couldn't will away the blush that seemed to increase with the sultry look in Sooil's eyes.</p><p>Luckily, Yein chose that moment to break in and say, "hyu-ung, stop flirting with Gyujin's friend and come sit down. We're here to work, remember?" Minsoo startled and saw Gyujin and Yein were both sitting down already, and he fled back to his fortress of paper-work, avoiding Gyujin's knowing eyes as he collapsed ungracefully into his chair, like the heap of bones he was.</p><p>Sooil just laughed and made his way over, unfortunately sitting in the empty chair next to Minsoo, dropping his bag next to his chair before leaning over to look at Minsoo's graph paper. "Wow Minsoo-ssi, those are beautifully detailed drawings! Are you an artist?"</p><p>Gyujin snorted without looking up and Minsoo glared first at the top of his head and then he intended to glare at Sooil but ended up looking rather helplessly at the large hand resting near him. "Um," Minsoo cleared his throat when his voice cracked slightly, much to his embarrassment. He could feel himself flush again. "No. No, not at all. I'm just a mechanical engineering student. Normally we just do it all on computer, but I like drawing the systems myself to get a better feel of what's going on."</p><p>"Hm, that looks pretty cool, but maybe it's just because you're so good at this?" Sooil looked at him with another big grin and Minsoo straightened his back against his instinct to shrink away. He'd... never been faced with such blatant flirting while sober. Drunk yes, but that's just what happened at the club when everyone's inhibitions were low. But he did not have the inner fortitude to deal with this while sober. And worst of all, he couldn't even seem to find the desire within himself to tell the guy off, because it wasn't... exactly like he was NOT interested, even if he was pretty sure the guy was just flirting for fun or his own entertainment. </p><p>That thought was sufficiently depressing that it must have showed on his face, because he caught Sooil's bright smile freeze before Yein interrupted again. "Sooil hyung, would you PLEASE stop flirting and just work already? You're being too loud!"</p><p>"Sorry Yein-ie," Sooil said with a much more authentic smile,and then he turned back to Minsoo, that smile still in place. "Sorry about that Minsoo-ssi, you're just too fun to tease." </p><p>Minsoo froze, his mind dredging up ALL of his recent anxieties, and he bravely paved over them with a smile that he just knew didn't reach his eyes. "It's alright, I guess we'd better get working before Yein-ssi yells at us again." He turned his smile to Yein, his eyes getting softer at he immediately outraged look on Yein's face.</p><p>"I don't yell," Yein whined, "I'm just... trying to keep us all on track! We don't have endless time! And since we'll be doing that thing on Monday..."</p><p>"What thing on Monday?" Minsoo saw Sooil raise an eyebrow at Yein, who suddenly looked nervous, his eyes darting over to Gyujin as if seeking help. Minsoo could see Gyujin was floundering too, but suddenly Sooil laughed. "What, are you two going on a date or something?"</p><p>"No!" Yein exclaimed immediately, his cheeks flushing as he threw his pencil surprisingly hard at his friend, who winced as it caught him on the shoulder. "No it isn't. It's just..." he subsided and bit his lip, looking nervous.</p><p>"Yein-hyung," Gyujin's soft voice had them all turning to look at him, and he looked nothing but sympathetic as he looked at Yein. "Maybe now would be as good a time as any? We're here to support you."</p><p>Minsoo watched in interested concern as Yein's facade cracked just a bit and he looked truly worried as he glanced back at Sooil who was suddenly looking very serious himself. It was a good look on him, Minsoo noticed absently as he waited silently for Yein to make up his mind.</p><p>Yein glanced from the table to Gyujin to Sooil, and then took a deep breath, scooting his chair closer to Gyujin without looking at him. "FIne, since you talked me into it, I'm going to use your hand as a stress ball," he said, holding out his hand still without looking at Gyujin. Minsoo watched in amusement as Yein's ears turned pink and Gyujin looked like his birthday had come early as he scooted his own chair closer so his arm wouldn't be at too awkward of an angle as he willingly offered his hand to Yein. Minsoo chanced a glance at Sooil and noticed he too had a small smile as he watched the interaction, even if his eyes were still worried. It gave Minsoo hope that maybe he wasn't just a playboy like he'd initially feared. Not that he was hoping anything. Or for anything.</p><p>And maybe he was a little teeny bit jealous of Gyujin as Yein very carefully didn't actually hold his hand, instead gripping Gyujin's fingers and moving them around and bending them randomly as he thought. And ok he was very jealous of Gyujin very obviously trying to paste a serious look on his face while his ears and neck were bright red. But that's ok. Really he was just jealous of a fantasy of something that wasn't real. He wasn't going to be lured in by the fiery passion of a crush anymore since he had good practice in how that turned out in the university. Badly.</p><p>"Gyujin, did you tell Minsoo?" Yein suddenly asked.</p><p>"Yes," Gyujin responded simply, and Minsoo watched them look at each other, watched Yein straighten his back and grip Gyujin's hand in response, taking in a deep breath.</p><p>Yein let out that breath in a gusty sigh and turned back to Sooil who, Minsoo noticed, was now looking very thoughtful. "So I wasn't entirely honest about nothing happening last night..." Yein began, and Minsoo sat back a bit so he could more unobtrusively watch Sooil's face. It must not have been quite as unobtrusive as he thought, because Sooil flashed him an amused glance before turning his full attention back to Yein, one eyebrow raising at the admission. "There was... um." Yein looked down at the table and took another deep breath. </p><p>"Ok so there's this old guy whose been coming in for the past week... and a half? Almost two weeks now. And he's a bit... weird and gave me kind of weird vibes but I mean... that's just life sometimes right? And you know that happens to me... sometimes but whatever they usually get over it and go away or whatever." Yein got more animated, talking more quickly and expressively as he got into retelling the story. Minsoo noticed Sooil smirk and open his mouth when Yein waved away his past stalkers before closing it again as Yein blazed on by. Minsoo got a feeling that there was maybe a bit more going on behind the scenes that Yein wasn't aware of, but Yein kept talking so he put that thought aside and tried to mentally catch back up. </p><p>"...So anyway, the weird old guy came in again and he came up to the counter to order like normal but then he got super weird and Gyujin stepped in and then there was a fight and we ended up having to call the police and Monday we're going to go get a temporary restraining order against him." Minsoo watched in amusement as Sooil's eyebrows disappeared into his bangs as Yein rocketed through his bare-bones retelling at breakneck speed. Even Gyujin looked amused, but that's probably because he was besotted, the poor love-struck kid.</p><p>They paused so Sooil could absorb what he'd just heard. "Got weird how?" Minsoo was impressed that this was the first question out of Sooil's mouth. Either he had a lot of experience ferreting answers out of Yein or he was a pretty smart dude. Minsoo would bet it was the first.</p><p>"Um." Yein, who had looked relieved after he'd finished, shrunk in on himself a little, and Minsoo watched with part jealousy and part amusement (ok so he was a bit of a romantic and they were super cute so sue him) as Gyujin curled his hand around Yein's fingertips that were hooked around the edges, squeezing back gently. "You were there," Yein suddenly accused Gyujin, looking  up at Minsoo's startled friend, "you tell him."</p><p>"Are you sure? I'm not going to sugar-coat it," Gyujin warned the blonde, his face turning serious.</p><p>"I don't really remember it well anyway. You tell it," Yein insisted.</p><p>"Well I was working on some reading so I don't know how it started, and I couldn't hear what he was saying, but when I glanced over he was leaning over the counter trying to grab Yein-hyung."</p><p>"No way," Sooil exclaimed, but his smile quickly dimmed seeing the uncomfortable look flash across Yein's face, settling into a more incredulous expression. "What the ****? Was he high?"</p><p>Even Yein chuckled in response to that, all of them shaking their heads with a slightly bemused expression of shared incredulity. "Looking back it just seems so... improbable. Like what was WRONG with him?" Yein's smile dropped off his face as he obviously started to think back on the experience. "If it wasn't for how creepy he was being it would be funny."</p><p>"Yein, what did he say?" Sooil's voice was softer this time but his eyes were suspicious. Minsoo watched in interest as Yein's face flushed in response as he looked down and played with Gyujin's hand.</p><p>"He was jealous of Gyujin," Yein mumbled, still not looking up.</p><p>"He told me that Yein was his when I got to the counter," Gyujin added, his expression carefully blank but his shoulders tense, probably in an effort not to move his hand, Minsoo thought with a whisper of amusement. "And I told him Yein didn't belong to anyone and the way he was acting wasn't going to help his case, and then he tried to punch me." A hint of a savage smile peaked out from under Gyujin's mask, his eyes lighting up in vindictive amusement. </p><p>When nobody interrupted him, Gyujin continued, "for a big guy he wasn't very coordinated... or good at fighting, so I punched him in the stomach and then another guy helped me sit on him until the police arrived." Minsoo smiled in amusement at the smug look on Gyujin's face. And he had every right to be smug, Minsoo was absolutely certain that he couldn't have pulled anything like that off so cleanly even if they did take the same self-defense course. A glance at Yein showed he still was very determinedly focused on curling and uncurling Gyujin's unresisting hand and not meeting anyone's eyes. </p><p>"First of all, good job, man!" Sooil had a cheesy grin on his face as he offered two thumbs up. Minsoo blinked at him in astonishment. "Second of all, his face twisted into a leering grin, "why was he jealous of Gyujin, huh Yein? Have you finally..."</p><p>"NO! Shut up!" Yein loudly interrupted, looking a bit panicked. "Sooil I swear if you finish that sentence I'll..." He trailed off, wide-eyed and desperate, his nails digging into Gyujin's hand that was obviously painful if Gyujin's wince was anything to go by.</p><p>"What're you going to do, bite me?" Sooil continued to tease.</p><p>"Sooil-hyung, seriously! Stop it! Do you want me to start telling Minsoo here about your last 'relationship'?" Yein let go of Gyujin's hand to make air quotes around the word relationship and Minsoo watched in amusement as Gyujin silently mouthed 'ow' as he flexed his hand.</p><p>"Pft, I don't care," Sooil responded, leaning back with a cocky grin. "It's not like I have some super secret skeletons wandering around in my closet. Here look:" at this he turned and looked Minsoo dead in the eye. It was very disconcerting and felt a little too intimate so Minsoo let his gaze slide slightly off-side. "I spent high school and the first half of college being the rebellious kid. Drinking, smoking, clubbing, hooking up, you name it I did it. I drove Yein nuts worrying about me. Last year a girl accused me of getting her pregnant. Luckily it wasn't mine, but it could have been. So I finally said goodbye to that group of 'friends' and got serious about life. So I still go to bars and clubbing and I still hook up here and there, but just not as much and on the plus side now I have straight As."</p><p>Minsoo blinked at Sooil and his ridiculously wide grin. And then again. He wasn't sure where to start from that frank disclosure of information that fully revealed how VASTLY different he and Sooil were. Luckily Yein broke the... moment of sorts by whining, "it's not fair! You barely go to class for two years and you have an above C average, and then one life-changing event later you decide to start actually taking college seriously and now you've got straight As? And here I am working myself to DEATH just to barely scratch a B average!"</p><p>"In my defense, I was smart enough to pick and easy major. I still don't understand why you took accounting of all things," Sooil retorted with what sounded like a well-worn argument. "You've got a fantastic voice. You should go for singing, Yein-a!" Minsoo raised his eyebrows and looked at Yein who looked flustered as he waved the complement away.</p><p>"It's not that great. Besides, singing for a career is for rich people and I'm super not that. I need a career where I can actually make enough money to pay my parents back for helping me with my tuition," Yein grumbled. "Speaking of which," he continued loudly when Sooil opened his mouth to continue, "I need to do actual school work today." He glared at Sooil who put up his hands in surrender.</p><p>"Alright, I got it," Sooil shot a grin at Yein and a wink at Minsoo who felt himself blush as he quickly averted his eyes... And caught Gyujin's who was looking extremely amused. Minsoo glared halfheartedly at his friend and they all turned back to working on their various projects, studying, and homework.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Whoo! Ok! And here's a summary for the next chapter... whenever I end up finishing that. With two writing projects and real life happening I have NO IDEA when it'll be done, but at least it's finally started. ;;;_;;; </p><p>Preview for Chapter 11: The First Meet-Cute Part Two: Sooil</p><p>Sooil was aware that this guy was a very different breed from the sort of person he usually hooked up with. Usually it was an easy-going, brief, alcohol-filtered affair. Not meant to last longer than a night. Just for some quick physical comfort to keep himself from getting too lonely and needy. And Sooil was content with that. To be perfectly honest, the thought of entering in to a more serious relationship was daunting, even if he had entertained the idea on occasion.</p>
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